Michael October - November

n Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified, His

Mother, the Virgin Mary and St. John, the beloved dis-

ciple, stood at the foot of the Cross. Moments before

dying, Jesus said to his mother: “Woman, behold your

son.” Then he said to the disciple: “Behold your Moth-

er. ” (John 19:27.) Since that time, all Christians are

children of Mary, who desires nothing but to lead us

all to her Son Jesus. The last chapter of the Constitu-

tion

Lumen Gentium

on the

Church, from the Second

Vatican Council, is devoted

to Mary’s special role of

intercession.

To consecrate oneself

to Mary is to choose, after

the example of many saints

of the Church, to belong to

her in a special way to follow

Jesus with her and through

her. We need only to think

of the recent examples of

Pope John Paul II and our

current Pope Francis. This

approach is certainly not

essential to salvation, since

Christ crucified is our only

Redeemer. However, this

approach, which is recom-

mended by the Church, is

“an easy way to obtain from

God the grace to become a

saint,” as stated by St. Louis

Marie Grignon de Montfort,

in his

Treatise on True De-

votion to the Blessed Virgin

It is God’s will that all

Christians consecrate them-

selves to Mary. In her appar-

itions at Fatima in Portugal

in 1917, the Virgin Mary said to the three young seers,

“You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners

go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world

devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” (

See page 17

The word “consecrate” means “to sanctify oneself

with.” So to consecrate oneself to Jesus through Mary,

is to sanctify oneself with Mary. In a conference, Most

Rev. Jean Ntagwarara , Bishop of Bubanza, Burundi,

explained the meaning of the consecration to Mary:

“What does consecration mean? To be consecrat-

ed is to be set apart for God, and God alone. It means

to give oneself freely for his glory.

“Jesus is the first consecrated person: he conse-

crated himself to his Father by coming into the world:

“Behold, I come to do your will.” ( Hebrews 10:9.) His

consecration is animated by divine love, perfect love.

And because it is perfect, it is the only act definitively

approved by God.

“All other acts of conse-

cration refer to Jesus: ‘I am

the Way, the Truth and the

Life. No one comes to the

Father except through me.’

(John 14:6.) “And I conse-

crate myself for them, so

that they also may be con-

secrated in truth.” (John

17:19.) The baptized Chris-

tian is consecrated to God

the Father, through Jesus

Christ, in the Holy Spirit.

“The baptismal conse-

cration is the foundation of

all our other consecrations:

The Profession of Faith, the

consecration in an associa-

tion of lay faithful, the pray-

er of consecration accord-

ing to Saint Louis Marie de

Montfort, etc., all this is not

an addition but simply a

deepening, a development,

an explanation of the bap-

tismal consecration.

“You can consecrate

yourself through someone

on two conditions: first,

that it is a consecration to

God, and secondly, that the intermediary is already

consecrated to God totally and permanently. This per-

son is a model and an aid.

“Consecration to Mary can have no other purpose

than being united with Jesus. We can therefore con-

secrate ourselves to God through Mary, since Mary is

consecrated to God: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the

Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

(

Luke 1:38.)

To consecrate oneself to God through

Mary is also to recognize the mission that Mary re-

ceived at Calvary, when Jesus said to his mother:

‘Woman, behold your son’. Then he said to the dis-

ciple, ‘Behold your mother.’

(Jn 19:26-27.)

“To consecrate oneself to God through Mary is

also to imitate Jesus who came and gave himself to

Mary in the Incarnation. Jesus is the first one who con-

secrated himself to Mary. What can we do better than

imitate Jesus ! ”

St. Louis Marie de Montfort

The text that best explains why we should con-

secrate ourselves to Mary is the

Treatise on True De-

votion to the Blessed Virgin

, written in 1712 by St.

Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort (1673-1716), a great

Marian apostle of Brittany, France, declared a saint by

Pope Pius XII in 1947. According to Montfort, it is in

the interest of every Christian to completely surrender

to the love of the Mother of God, who constantly inter-

cedes with Jesus and the Father on behalf of all men,

and as She is immaculate, conceived without sin, God

can only accept the requests that come from Mary.

The heart of the consecration to Mary according to

Louis -Marie de Montfort’s formula is summarized in

these words:

“This day, with the whole court of heav-

en as witness, I choose you, Mary, as my

Mother and Queen. I surrender and conse-

crate myself to you, body and soul, with all

that I possess, both spiritual and material,

even including the spiritual value of all my

actions, past, present, and to come. I give

you the full right to dispose of me and all

that belongs to me, without any reserva-

tions, in whatever way you please, for the

greater glory of God in time and throughout

eternity.”

John Paul II and the spirituality

of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort

During the general audience of October 13,

2000, John Paul II explained how his spiritual dir-

ector advised him to meditate on the

Treatise on

True Devotion to Mary

, when he was a clandestine

seminarian, working at the same time at the Solvay

factory in Krakow. “I read and reread several times,

with a great spiritual interest, this ascetic precious

little book, of which the blue cover was stained with

soda.“

According to his Apostolic Letter

Rosarium Vir-

ginis Mariae

on the Rosary, his episcopal and papal

motto, Totus Tuus, was inspired by St. Louis Marie

Grignon de Montfort. It is taken from a passage from

a prayer found in the T

reatise on True Devotion to

Mary

: “

Totus Tuus ego sum omnia mea tua sunt.

Accipio Te in mea omnia.

“ (I ‘m all yours, and every-

thing I have is yours. Be my guide in all.)

In his book

Crossing the Treshold of Hope

(1994),

Pope John Paul II explained the choice of this motto:

«Thanks to Saint Louis of Montfort, I came to under-

stand that true devotion to the Mother of God is ac-

tually Christocentric, indeed, it is very profoundly

rooted in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, and the

mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption.

Here are large excerpts from this wonderful

book, T

reatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Vir-

gin

, which, we hope, will encourage many to conse-

crate themselves to Mary.

Alain Pilote

Why consecrate oneself to Mary?

Because it is the surest way to totally belong to Jesus

Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

As Jesus wanted to go through Mary to come

to us, we must go through Mary to come to

Jesus (Saint Louis Marie de Montfort)

Statue ofe sSint Louis-Marie Grignion de Mont-

fort in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. The saint

crushes the devil who tries to destroy his book

“Treatise on True Devotion to Mary”.

MICHAEL October/November/December 2013