True Devotion to Maria ... by Blessed Louis de Montfort (d. 1716 A.D.)

Extracts ... for making the Total Consecration to Jesus by Maria

Day 23 of 33 -- Interior practices and motives for
Total Consecration to Jesus by Maria

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Introduction:

This sub-section of Section 129, like the others, are extracts from Blessed Louis de Montfort's book: True Devotion to Maria ... this is an absolutely top tier writing on the Blessed Virgin. The extracts from True Devotion on these sub-sections are the ones specifically called out by Louis de Montfort ... as part of the daily readings (of a four week devotional) when making the Total Consecration to Maria.

We cannot identify or call Blessed Louis de Montfort a Saint because ... anti-Pope "Pius XII" had no Catholic jurisdiction to make Saints since he was automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church for heresy. I list selected heresies of anti-Pope "Pius XII" on Section 20.2 of this site. This Catholic Dogma on automatic excommunication for heresy or for physical participation in a heretic cult (such as the vatican-2 jew-heretic cult) is listed on Section 13.2 of this site.

The Beatification of Louis de Montfort was made by Pope Leo XIII in 1888.

Subjects discussed here include ...

1.  Interior practices of true devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

2.  Renewal of the vows of Baptism and Total Consecration to Jesus by Maria.

3.  Surrendering the value of our prayers and works of charity to Maria.

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Start writings from True Devotion to Maria ... titles and headings may be many pages prior to the extract ...

Part II

On the most excellent devotion to our Blessed Lady, or the perfect consecration to Jesus by Maria.

There are several interior practices of true devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Here are the principal of them stated compendiously. (1) To honour her as the worthy Mother of God, with the worship of hyperdulia; that is to say, to esteem her and honour her above all the other Saints, as the masterpiece of grace, and the first after Jesus Christ, true God and true Man; (2) to meditate her virtues, her privileges, and her actions; (3) to contemplate her grandeurs; (4) to make to her acts of love, of praise, of gratitude; (5) to invoke her cordially; (6) to offer ourselves to her, and unite ourselves with her; (7) to do all our actions with the view of pleasing her; (7) to begin, to continue, and to finish all our actions by her, in her, and with her, in order that we may do them by Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ our Last End.

We will presently explain this last practice.

True devotion to our Lady has also several exterior practices, of which the following are the chief:

(1) To enrol ourselves in her confraternities, and enter her congregations;

(2) To join the religious orders instituted in her honour; (Note: There are no Catholic religious orders in these times)

(3) To publish her praises;

(4) To give alms, to fast, and to undergo outward and inward mortifications in her honour;

(5) To wear her liveries, such as the rosary, the scapular, or the little chain;

(6) To recite with attention, devotion, and modesty, the Holy Rosary, composed of fifteen decades of Hail Maria(s) in honour of the fifteen principal mysteries of Jesus Christ, or five decades, which is the third of the Rosary, either ...

... in honour of the five Joyous Mysteries, which are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity of Jesus Christ, the Purification, and the Finding of our Lord in the Temple; or in honour of the five Sorrowful Mysteries, which are the Agony of our Lord in the Garden of Olives, His scourging, His Crowning with Thorns, His Carrying of the Cross, and His Crucifixion; or in honour of the five Glorious Mysteries, which are the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Assumption of our Blessed Lady body and soul into Heaven, and her Coronation by the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity.

Note: The Vatican-2 cult (founded in 1965) headed by Karol Wojtyla (a.k.a."John Paul II") at the time ... introduced the "luminous mysteries" ... which we of course ignore, coming from a non-Catholic sect. Wojtyla descended into Hell forever in 2005 ... see Sections 12.7, 12.7.1, and 12.7.2.

We may also say a Chaplet of six or seven decades in honour of the years which we believe our Lady lived on earth; or the little Corona of the Blessed Virgin, composed of three Our Fathers and twelve Hail Maria(s), in honour of her crown of twelve stars, or privileges; or the Office of our Lady, so universally received and recited in the Church ; or the Little Psalter of the holy Virgin, which St. Bonaventure has composed in her honour, and which is so tender and so devout that one cannot say it without being melted by it; or fourteen Our Fathers and Hail Maria(s) in honour of her fourteen joys; or some other prayers, hymns, and canticles of the Church, such as the Salve Regina, the Alma, the Ave Regina Caelorum, or the Regina Coeli, according to the different seasons; or the Ave Maris Stella, the O Gloriosa Domina, the Magnificat, or some other practices of devotion of which books are full;

(7) To sing or have sung spiritual canticles in her honour;

(8) To make her a number of genuflexions or reverences, while saying, for example, every morning, sixty or a hundred times Ave Maria, Virgo Fidelis, to obtain from God the grace by her to be faithful to the graces of God during the day; and then again in the evening, Ave Maria, Mater Misericordice, to ask pardon of God by her for the sins that we have committed during the day;

(9) To take care of her confraternities, to adorn her altars, to crown and ornament her images; (Note: There are no Catholic altars in these times, see Sections 12 and 13 of this site)

(10) To carry her images, or to have them carried, in procession, and to carry a picture or image of her about our own persons, as a mighty arm against the evil spirit;

(11) To have her images or her name carved, and placed in churches, or in houses, or on the gates and entrances into cities, churches, and houses; (Note: There are no Catholic Churches in these times, see Sections 12 and 13 of this site)

(12) To consecrate ourselves to her in a special and solemn manner.

There are a quantity of other practices of true devotion towards the Blessed Virgin which the Holy Spirit has inspired into saintly souls, and which are very sanctifying; they can be read at length in the Paradise Opened of Fr. Barry, the Jesuit, where he has collected a great number of devotions which the Saints have practised in honour of our Lady, devotions which serve marvellously to sanctify souls, provided they are performed as they ought to be; that is to say, (1) with a good and pure intention to please God only, to unite ourselves to Jesus Christ as to our Last End, and to edify our neighbour; (2) with attention, and without voluntary distraction; (3) with devotion, equally avoiding precipitation or negligence; (4) with modesty, and a respectful and edifying care of the postures of the body.

Note: The definition of a sanctified soul is one which is baptized in water and believes the Catholic Dogmas whole and inviolate.

But after all, I loudly protest that, having read nearly all the books which profess to treat of devotion to our Lady, and having conversed familiarly and holily with the best and wisest of men of these latter times, I have never known nor heard of any practice of devotion towards her at all equal to the one which I wish now to unfold; exacting from the soul as it does more sacrifices for God, emptying the soul more of itself and of its self-love, keeping it more faithfully in grace, and grace more faithfully in it, uniting it more perfectly and more easily to Jesus Christ; and finally, being more glorious to God, more sanctifying to the soul, and more useful to our neighbour, than any other of the devotions to her.

As the essential of this devotion consists in the interior which it ought to form, it will not be equally comprehended by everybody. Some will stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further, and these will be the greatest number. Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will only mount but one step. Who will mount to the second step? Who will get as far as the third? Lastly, who will so advance as to make this devotion his habitual state? He alone to whom the spirit of Jesus Christ shall have revealed the secret, the faultlessly faithful soul, whom He shall conduct there Himself, to advance from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, from light to light, until he arrives at the transformation of himself into Jesus Christ, and to the plentitude of His age on earth, and of His glory in heaven.

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I. In what consists the perfect consecration to Jesus Christ

All our perfection consists in being conformed, united, and consecrated to Jesus Christ; and therefore the most perfect of all devotions is, without any doubt, that which the most perfectly conforms, unites, and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. Now, Maria being the most conformed of all creatures to Jesus Christ, it follows that, of all devotions, that which most consecrates and conforms the soul to our Lord is devotion to His holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to Maria, the more is it consecrated to Jesus. Hence it comes to pass, that the most perfect consecration to Jesus Christ is nothing else but a perfect and entire consecration of ourselves to the Blessed Virgin, and this is the devotion which I teach; or in other words, a perfect renewal of the vows and promises of holy Baptism.

This devotion consists, then, in giving ourselves entirely and altogether to our Lady, in order to belong entirely and altogether to Jesus by her. We must give her (1) our body, with all its senses and its members; (2) our soul, with all its powers; (3) the exterior goods of fortune, whether present or to come; (4) our interior and spiritual goods, which are our merits and our virtues, and our good works, past, present, and future.

In a word, we must give her all we have in the order of nature and in the order of grace, and all that may become ours in future in the orders of nature, grace, and glory; and this we must do without any reserve of so much as one farthing, one hair, or one least good action; and we must do it also for all eternity, and we must do it further without pretending to, or hoping for, any other recompense for our offering and service, except the honour of belonging to Jesus Christ by Maria and in Maria, as though that sweet Mistress were not, as she always is, the most generous and the most grateful of creatures.

Here we must remark, that there are two things in the good works which we do, namely, satisfaction and merit; in other words, their satisfactory or impetratory value, and their meritorious value. The satisfactory or impetratory value of a good work is the good action, so far as it satisfies for the pain due to sin, or obtains some fresh increase of grace; the meritorious value, or the merit, is the good action, so far as it merits grace now and eternal glory hereafter. Now, in this consecration of ourselves to our Lady, we give her all the satisfactory, impetratory, and meritorious value of our actions; in other words, the satisfactions and merits of all our good works. We give her all our merits, graces, and virtues, not to communicate them to others, - for our merits, graces, and virtues are, properly speaking, incommunicable, and it is only Jesus Christ, who, in making Himself our surety with His Father, is able to communicate His merits, - but we give her them to keep them, augment them, and embellish them for us, as we shall explain by and by. But we give her our satisfactions to communicate them to whom she likes, and for the greatest glory of God.

It follows from this, that ...
(1), by this devotion, we give to Jesus Christ, in the most perfect manner, inasmuch as it is by Maria's hands, all we can give Him, and far more than by any other devotions, in which we give Him either part of our time, or a part of our good works, or a part of our satisfactions and mortifications; whereas here every thing is given and consecrated to Him, even to the right of disposing of our interior goods, and of the satisfactions which we gain by our good works daily. This is more than we do even in a religious order. In religious orders we give God the goods of fortune by the vow of poverty, the goods of the body by the vow of chastity, our own will by the vow of obedience, and sometimes the liberty of the body by the vow of cloister. But we do not by those vows give Him the liberty or the right to dispose of the value of our good works; and we do not strip ourselves, as far as a Christian man can do so, of that which is dearest and most precious to Him, namely, his merits and satisfactions.

Note: There are no religious orders in these times, see Sections 12 and 13 and their sub-sections.

(2) A person who is thus voluntarily consecrated and sacrificed to Jesus Christ by Maria can no longer dispose of the value of any of his good actions. All he suffers, all he thinks, all the good he says or does, belongs to Maria, in order that she may dispose of it according to the will of her Son, and His greatest glory, without, however, that dependence prejudicing in any way the obligations of the state we may be in at present, or may be placed in for the future; for example, without prejudicing the obligations of a priest (Note: There are no priests in these times, see Sections 12 and 13), who, by his office or otherwise, ought to apply the satisfactory or impetratory value of the holy Mass to some private person; for we make the offering of this devotion only according to the order of God and the duties of our state.

Note: There are no priests in these times, see Sections 12 and 13 and their sub-sections.

(3) We consecrate ourselves at one and the same time to the most holy Virgin and to Jesus Christ: to the most holy Virgin, as to the perfect means which Jesus Christ has chosen, whereby to unite Himself to us, and us to Him; and to our Lord, as to our Last End, to whom we owe all we are, as our Redeemer and our God.

I have said that this devotion may most justly be called a perfect renewal of the vows or promises of holy Baptism. For every Christian, before his Baptism, was the slave of the devil, seeing that he belonged to him. He has in his Baptism, by his own mouth or by his sponsor's, solemnly renounced Satan, his pomps and his works; and he has taken Jesus Christ for his Master and Sovereign Lord, to depend upon Him in the quality of a slave of love. This is what we do by the present devotion. We renounce, as is expressed in the formula of consecration, the devil, the world, sin, and self; and we give ourselves entirely to Jesus Christ by the hands of Maria. Nay, we even do something more; for, in Baptism, we ordinarily speak by the mouth of another, namely, by our godfather or godmother, and so we give ourselves to Jesus Christ not by ourselves but through another. But in this devotion we do it by ourselves, voluntarily, knowing what we are doing. Moreover, in holy Baptism, we do not give ourselves to Jesus by the hands of Maria, at least not in an expressed manner; and we do not give Him the value of our good actions. We remain entirely free after Baptism, either to apply them to whom we please or to keep them for ourselves. But, by this devotion, we give ourselves to our Lord expressly by the hands of Maria, and we consecrate to Him the value of all our actions.

Note 1: Regarding the text ... "Nay, we even do something more" ... Original Sin in involuntarily contracted at conception, so it can (and the sooner the better) be removed involuntarity in infant baptism. Because of infant mortality, baptism should be performed within days of being born if not on the day of birth.

Note 2: Baptism is infinitely more important than devotionals of the Church such as the Total Consecration to Maria ... since without water baptism you cannot get to Heaven ... and until being baptized you are not in the Catholic Church and are thus not a Christian ... so Catholic devotionals would not even apply to your soul.

Note 3: Do not set foot in a building with a Catholic sign out front for baptism ... the baptism will, with virtually 100% certainty, be falsified by falsification of intent by the automatically excommunicated heretic who claims to be a Catholic priest (and is not). See Section 7 of this site for how to baptize and do the water baptism yourself. Section 7 also lists Sources of Dogma that sacraments can easily be made invalid by false intention.

Men, says St. Thomas, make a vow at their Baptism to renounce the devil and all his pomps, - "In Baptismo vovent homines abrenuntiare diabolo et pompis ejus." This vow, says St. Augustine, is the greatest and most indispensable of all vows" - "Votum maximum nostrum, quo vovimus nos in Christo esse mansuros." It is thus also that canonists speak: "Prcecipuum votum est, quod in Baptismate facimus." Yet who has kept this great vow? Who is it that faithfully performs the promises of holy Baptism? Have not almost all Christians swerved from the loyalty which they promised Jesus in their Baptism? Whence can come this universal disobedience, except from our oblivion of the promises and engagements of holy Baptism, and from the fact that hardly anyone ratifies of himself the contract he made with God by those who stood sponsors for him? This is so true, that the Council of Sens, convoked by order of Louis the Debonnaire to remedy the disorders of Christians, which were then so great, judged that the principal cause of that corruption of morals arose from the oblivion and ignorance in which men lived of the engagements of holy Baptism; and it could think of no better means for remedying so great an evil than to persuade Christians to renew the vows and promises of Baptism.

The Catechism of the Council of Trent, the faithful interpreter of that holy Council (see Note below), exhorts the parish-priests to do the same thing; and to induce the people to remember themselves, and to believe that they are bound and consecrated to our Lord Jesus Christ, as slaves to their Redeemer and Lord. These are its words: "Paroclms fidelem ad earn ratumem cohortabitur ut sciat aquissimum esse . . . nos ijjsos non secus ac rnancipio Redemptori nostro ac Domino in perpetuum addicere et consecrare" (Cat. Cone. Trid. par. i. c. iii. sec. 4).

Note 1: The books which call themselves "Catholic Catechisms" ... are filled with soul damning lies against the Catholic Dogma. Even the current printing of the Catechism of the Council of Trent has heresy in it ... that "the person who dies on his way to water baptism may be saved" (which, of course, is a lie). See Section 7.2 (primary) also Sections 7.2.1 and 7.2.2 of this site.

Note 2: We are not governed by catechisms, of which there are a great many ... we are governed by the Sources of Dogma of the Church.

Now if the Councils, the Fathers, and experience even, show us that the best means of remedying the irregularities of Christians is by making them call to mind the obligations of their Baptism, and persuading them to renew now the vows they made then, does it not stand to reason that we shall do it in a perfect manner, by this devotion and consecration of ourselves to our Lord, through His holy Mother? I say in a perfect manner; because in thus consecrateing ourselves to Him we make use of the most perfect of all means, namely, the Blessed Virgin.

No one can object to this devotion as either a new or an indifferent one. It is not new; because the Councils, the Fathers, and many authors both ancient and modern, speak of this consecration to our Lord, in renewing the vows and promises of Baptism, as of a thing anciently practised, and which they counsel to all Christians. Neither is it a matter of indifference; because the principal source of all disorders, and consequently of the eternal perdition of Christians, comes from their forgetfulness and indifference about this practice. But some may object that this devotion, in making us give to our Lord by our Lady's hands the value of all our good works, prayers, mortifications, and alms, puts us into a state of incapacity for succouring the souls of our parents, friends, and benefactors.

I answer them as follows: (1) That it is not credible that our parents, friends, and benefactors, should suffer any damage from the fact of our being devoted and consecrated without exception to the service of our Lord and His holy Mother. To think this, would be to think upworthily of the goodness and power of Jesus and Maria, who know well how to assist our parents, friends, and benefactors out of our own little spiritual revenue, or by other ways. (2) This practice does not hinder us from praying for others, whether dead or living, although the application of our good works depends on the will of our Blessed Lady. On the contrary, it is this very thing which will lead us to pray with more confidence; just as a rich person, who has given all his wealth to his prince, in order to honour him the more, would beg the prince all the more confidently to give an alms to one of his friends who should demand it. It would even be conferring a fresh favour on the prince, leave them free for all the other actions and times of their lives.

But this devotion makes us give to Jesus and Maria, without reserve, all our thoughts, words, actions, and sufferings, all the times of our life, in such sort that whether we wake or sleep, whether we eat or drink, whether we do great actions or very little ones, it is always true to say that whatever we do, even without thinking of it, is, by virtue of our offering, at least if it has not been expressly retracted, done for Jesus and Maria. What a consolation is this!

Moreover, as I have already said, there is no other practice equal to this for enabling us to get rid with facility of a certain proprietorship, which imperceptibly insinuates itself into our best actions. Our good Jesus gives us this great grace, in recompense for the heroic and disinterested action of making a cession (surrendering) to Him, by the hands of His holy Mother, of all the value of our good works. If He gives a hundredfold even in this world to those who for His love quit outward and temporal and perishable goods, what will that hundredfold be which He will give to the man who sacrifices for Him even his inward and spiritual goods!

Jesus, our great friend, has given Himself to us without reserve, body and soul, virtues, graces, and merits. "Se toto totum me comparavit, said St. Bernard" - "He has bought the whole of me by the whole of Himself." Is it not, then, a simple matter of justice and of gratitude that we should give Him all that we can give Him? He has been the first to be liberal towards us; let us, at least, be the second; and then, in life and death, and throughout all eternity, we shall find Him still more liberal. "Cum liberali liberalis eiit."

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