St Louis De Montfort

[Eowyn]

Ok, I am not doing well on searching today, so apologize if this has been covered before.

Anyone else done or doing the Consecration to Mary? I'm doing the prep work and will be renewing my consecration on 11/21/12. I am almost finished reading True Devotion to Mary- such a fabulous, amesome, cool book.

[Spem in alium]

Yes!!! I just started preparation today, set to be consecrated on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception!

[MissyP89]

I read True Devotion just recently and had a very hard time. I'm not sure that this is the way for me -- at least not right now. Pray for me.

[morostheos]

[quote name='Spem in alium' timestamp='1352162346' post='2504868']
Yes!!! I just started preparation today, set to be consecrated on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception!
[/quote]

Me too!!

[Rosa immaculata]

Ave Maria!

Dear Eowyn, This book is absolutely fabulous! It made me discover the Immaculate as an absolute model for our sanctification!!
You are so lucky to have made a consecration! In France, I don't really know if we have such things (not in my parish I'm sure)... but it is amesome! Courage and continue on the path of Mary: the surest and shortest way to go to His Son!
I advise you to read (perhaps you know them! ), to deepen your marian spirituality the [i]Psalter of the Virgin Mary[/i] (St Bonaventure) and the [i]Speculum Beatae Mariae Virginis[/i] by Conrad of Saxony: I only red excerpts, and these books seem fabulous too; I plan to buy them in the future!!

Here is an excerpt found on the Blog Rorate Coeli:


[color=#990000]Florete flores quasi lilium, et date odorem, et frondete in gratiam, et collaudate canticum, et benedicite Dominum in operibus suis. [/color](Communion Antiphon for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Ecclesiasticus xxxix, 19: [i]Send forth flowers, as the lily, and yield a smell, and bring forth leaves in grace, and praise with canticles, and bless the Lord in His works.[/i])


Consider, first, in Mary the flower of precious virginity, which is virginity itself. Of this it is said in Isaias: "The desert shall rejoice and shall flower as a lily." Mary can fittingly be said to be a desert, who was so willing to be alone, who was in her voluntary solitude visited by an angel. Therefore St. Ambrose well says: "Alone in the inner part of her house, she whom no man could see, he found her alone without a companion, alone without a witness." In what manner this desert, the Virgin Mary, should rejoice, let her say herself: "And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior."
This desert of earth flowered like a lily by virginity. O angelical lily! O heavenly flower! O truly heavenly flower whom that supercelestial Bee hath so loved. For St. Bernard saith: "That Bee who feedeth among the lilies, who dwelt in a flowering fatherland, when He flew to Nazareth, which is interpreted a flower, flew towards thee, and came to the sweet smelling flower of thy perpetual virginity, he rested upon it, he embraced it."
The flower of virginity has as many petals, so to speak, as the conditions and praises of virginity. Oh, how greatly the crowns of this flower were multiplied by Mary! St. Ambrose says: "In the whole world the flower Mary weaves unfading crowns, and keeps the royal court of purity with immaculate affection, until integrity perseveres to the palm of victory, that in maidens it may grasp the trophy of sanctity, and in the footprints of the Virgin Mary, attain to the heavenly bridal chamber."
Secondly, consider in Mary the flower of virtuous reputation, of manners and of life, and hear what she herself says: "My flowers are the fruits of honor and riches" (Ecclus. XXIV, 23.) Of these it is also said: "Our bed is flowering."
... Note also that the flower of honesty, of a good reputation, yea, the flower of any virtue has, as it were, as many petals as it has good and meritorious works to show. Oh, how flowering was that earth, how flowering was the bed of Mary, who in the flowering virtue of her life flourished in the beauty of every virtue, as St. Bernard testifies, saying: "[b]Thou art the box of holy perfumes, O Mary, gathered by the heavenly Perfumer, delightfully blooming with the beautiful flowers of every virtue, among which three are excellent above all, the violet of humility, the lily of chastity, and the rose of charity.[/b]"

I pray for you the Immaculate and all those who want or are to be consecrated to Mary!
If someone has marian books, I'm interested too!

[Julie de Sales]

[quote name='Rosa immaculata' timestamp='1352206187' post='2505101']
Ave Maria!

Dear Eowyn, This book is absolutely fabulous! It made me discover the Immaculate as an absolute model for our sanctification!!
You are so lucky to have made a consecration! In France, I don't really know if we have such things (not in my parish I'm sure)... but it is amesome! Courage and continue on the path of Mary: the surest and shortest way to go to His Son!
I advise you to read (perhaps you know them! ), to deepen your marian spirituality the [i]Psalter of the Virgin Mary[/i] (St Bonaventure) and the [i]Speculum Beatae Mariae Virginis[/i] by Conrad of Saxony: I only red excerpts, and these books seem fabulous too; I plan to buy them in the future!!

Here is an excerpt found on the Blog Rorate Coeli:


[color=#990000]Florete flores quasi lilium, et date odorem, et frondete in gratiam, et collaudate canticum, et benedicite Dominum in operibus suis. [/color](Communion Antiphon for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Ecclesiasticus xxxix, 19: [i]Send forth flowers, as the lily, and yield a smell, and bring forth leaves in grace, and praise with canticles, and bless the Lord in His works.[/i])


Consider, first, in Mary the flower of precious virginity, which is virginity itself. Of this it is said in Isaias: "The desert shall rejoice and shall flower as a lily." Mary can fittingly be said to be a desert, who was so willing to be alone, who was in her voluntary solitude visited by an angel. Therefore St. Ambrose well says: "Alone in the inner part of her house, she whom no man could see, he found her alone without a companion, alone without a witness." In what manner this desert, the Virgin Mary, should rejoice, let her say herself: "And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior."
This desert of earth flowered like a lily by virginity. O angelical lily! O heavenly flower! O truly heavenly flower whom that supercelestial Bee hath so loved. For St. Bernard saith: "That Bee who feedeth among the lilies, who dwelt in a flowering fatherland, when He flew to Nazareth, which is interpreted a flower, flew towards thee, and came to the sweet smelling flower of thy perpetual virginity, he rested upon it, he embraced it."
The flower of virginity has as many petals, so to speak, as the conditions and praises of virginity. Oh, how greatly the crowns of this flower were multiplied by Mary! St. Ambrose says: "In the whole world the flower Mary weaves unfading crowns, and keeps the royal court of purity with immaculate affection, until integrity perseveres to the palm of victory, that in maidens it may grasp the trophy of sanctity, and in the footprints of the Virgin Mary, attain to the heavenly bridal chamber."
Secondly, consider in Mary the flower of virtuous reputation, of manners and of life, and hear what she herself says: "My flowers are the fruits of honor and riches" (Ecclus. XXIV, 23.) Of these it is also said: "Our bed is flowering."
... Note also that the flower of honesty, of a good reputation, yea, the flower of any virtue has, as it were, as many petals as it has good and meritorious works to show. Oh, how flowering was that earth, how flowering was the bed of Mary, who in the flowering virtue of her life flourished in the beauty of every virtue, as St. Bernard testifies, saying: "[b]Thou art the box of holy perfumes, O Mary, gathered by the heavenly Perfumer, delightfully blooming with the beautiful flowers of every virtue, among which three are excellent above all, the violet of humility, the lily of chastity, and the rose of charity.[/b]"

I pray for you the Immaculate and all those who want or are to be consecrated to Mary!
If someone has marian books, I'm interested too!
[/quote]
I can recommend the books of St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, that I read online in french here: [url="http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/Ligori/table.html"]http://livres-mystiq...gori/table.html[/url] The Glories and the Virtues of Mary are very beautiful, and I enjoyed especially the examples. This books are very good to reinforce our confidence in our Blessed Mother.

[Spem in alium]

[quote name='Julie de Sales' timestamp='1352209828' post='2505111']
I can recommend the books of St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, that I read online in french here: [url="http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/Ligori/table.html"]http://livres-mystiq...gori/table.html[/url] The Glories and the Virtues of Mary are very beautiful, and I enjoyed especially the examples. This books are very good to reinforce our confidence in our Blessed Mother.
[/quote]

I used The Glories of Mary in an assignment recently. Truly beautiful writing.

[Eowyn]

I'm going to check out those books - they sound good. I am blessed that the priests at the parish I attend made available the consecration prep several years ago and really reccomended it.

[Rosa immaculata]

Ave Maria!

Thank you for the titles! Alphonse de Ligori is a great marian author (and I have to plan to read his books, too!)! Sorry, I forgot to precise that the excerpt I have quoted is from the Speculum BMV by Conrad of Saxony....The P. KOLBE is also a fantastic author; he developed a great "theology" of the links between the Immaculate and the Holy Ghost (but Edigio surely knows more thnings than me ); I have a book in French: [i]Entretiens sprituels inédits. L'Immaculée révèle l'Esprit Saint,[/i] by Jean-François de Villepée ( in fact the book is based on Kolbe's theology and there are excerpts of various texts (Paul VI, Pie XII, Vatican II...) which illustrate it and complete it!). It is a GREAT book! The end is consecrated to the consecration without limit to the Immaculate; very useful I think for you! I hope you will find it!

[MarysLittleFlower]

I have made the Consecration but I'm hoping to renew it so I can live it out better. I think that's really the hardest part! I really love the book, it's beautiful

[MarysLittleFlower]

[quote name='MissyP89' timestamp='1352162726' post='2504872']
I read True Devotion just recently and had a very hard time. I'm not sure that this is the way for me -- at least not right now. Pray for me.
[/quote]

I had a very hard time with it also when I started. I actually started with Secret of Mary, which is shorter and is a type of summary of the devotion - and I had to put it down cause I couldn't figure it out and I had worries about it as a former Protestant. As I prayed to St Louis de Montfort and then Our Lady, I found that really helped, and afterwards it made sense. I recommend praying for the grace to understand the devotion - it's really a grace, it's hard to reach this on our own, if not impossible - and St Louis recommends prayer as well before learning about the devotion (he recommends the Ave Maris Stella and Veni Creator Spiritus in the Secret of Mary).

Hope this helps don't give up if it doesn't make sense at first, but pray and ask God to show, and give Him a bit of time. I'll pray for you too.

God bless!

[OnlySunshine]

I tried reading Montfort's Consecration Preparation and I wasn't able to understand him very well. I'm sure he's a good writer and everything but I did not like the 33-day prep because I cannot remember to do it every single day. I planned to make my Consecration in August 2009 but I kept missing days and so I had to push it back to December 8th. I finally discovered that St. Kolbe has a Total Consecration to the Immaculate and I loved his formula. It makes sense since I was baptized on August 14th, 1983 which is St. Kolbe's feast day. I renew it every year, though I did it early this year on the Visitation because I love Mary and Elizabeth!

I hope you get so much out of your Consecration when you finally make it. I feel like Mary is my Mama and I can go to her for anything. I developed a deep respect and love for her over these last 3 years. She is the perfect role model.

[Eowyn]

I've got about 2 weeks to go till my conscrecation - it's going well. One thing I've heard is that you don't always have to do the 33 day prep for it. That said, Mary calls us in different ways and she is a marvelous, wonderful Mom.

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='Eowyn' timestamp='1352399570' post='2506593']
I've got about 2 weeks to go till my conscrecation - it's going well. One thing I've heard is that you don't always have to do the 33 day prep for it. That said, Mary calls us in different ways and she is a marvelous, wonderful Mom.
[/quote]

Amen! I just love her! After I was consecrated, I acquired a Miraculous Medal and had it blessed. I love that medal -- not because of superstition -- because it reminds me that she is always with me.

[MarysLittleFlower]

Does anyone have any advice on living out the Consecration? I don't think I've done a really good job at all I like the idea St Louis de Montfort writes about which is to pray the Little Crown every morning: it helps to remember it. Also wearing a "little chain" could be a good reminder. Or, for those who follow St Maximilian Kolbe's formula: the Miraculous Medal. (both are great! ). But I think the hardest part is maybe living out the devotion internally.

Edited November 8, 2012 by MarysLittleFlower