My Total Consecration to Mary: True Devotion to Mary

Last Saturday, the Feast of the Assumption of our Lady into Heaven, I at last made the total consecration to Jesus through Mary using the method of St. Louis de Montfort. As part of my preparation, I read "True Devotion," which I happily recommend to anyone looking to better understand the necessity of devotion to Mary.

Some of the parts that resonated with me as I read it are quoted below. These are just the tip of the iceberg though. I highly encourage you to read this truly significant work.

• "It was also Pius X who granted the Apostolic Benediction to all those who would read the True Devotion; and the same Pope raised the Confraternity of Mary, Queen of Hearts, to the dignity of an Archconfraternity...on the occasion of his golden jubilee in the priesthood, he wished to be inscribed as a member of the Association of Priests of Mary." This Confraternity still exists and there are indulgences attached to it.
• "The more we reflect, the more we realize that the mission of Christianity is to take possession of man in his entirety in order to transform him into a soul worthy of heaven. Hence, Pius XI, in speaking of Christian Education, says that its 'proper and immediate end is to cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian, that is to form Christ Himself in those regenerated by Baptism.' In this work of transformation, a definite part has been assigned by God to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that of leading souls to Jesus Christ, and of keeping them in His love."
• "Let us make ourselves, and call ourselves, slaves of Jesus Christ; for that is being the slave of the holy Virgin, inasmuch as Jesus is the fruit and glory of Mary; and it is this very thing which we do perfectly by the Devotion of which we are hereafter to speak."
• "Our Lord is our advocate and Mediator of redemption with God the Father. It is through Him that we ought to pray, in union with the whole Church, Triumphant and Militant. It is through Him that we have access to the Majesty of the Father, before Whom we ought need to appear except sustained and clothed with the merits of His Son; just as the young Jacob came before his father Isaac in the skins of the kids to receive his blessing. But have we not need of a mediator with the Mediator Himself? Is our purity great enough to unite us directly to him, and by ourselves? If He not God, in all things equal to His Father, and consequently the Holy of Holies, as worthy of respect as His Father? If t through His infinite charity He has made Himself our bail and our Mediator with God His Father, in order to appease Him, and to pay Him what we owed Him, are we, on that account, to have less respect and less fear for His Majesty and His Sanctity?" [See more]
• "This devotion is a secure means of going to Jesus Christ, because it is the very characteristic of our Blessed Lady to conduct us surely to Jesus, just as it is the very characteristic of Jesus to conduct us surely to the Eternal Father."
• "Spiritual persons, therefore, must not fall into the false belief that Mary can be a hindrance to them in attaining divine union; for is it possible that she who has found grace before God for the whole world in general and for each one in particular, should be a hindrance to a soul in finding the great grace of union with Him? Can it be possible that she who has been full and superabounding with graces, so united and transformed...that it has been a kind of necessity that He should be incarnate in her, should be a stumbling-block in the way of a soul's perfect union with God?"
• "Another consideration which may bring us to embrace this practice is the great good which our neighbour receives from it. For by it we show love for our neighbour in an outstanding way, since we give him through Mary's hands all that we prize most highly - that is, the satisfactory and prayer value of all our good works, down to the least good thought and the least little suffering. We give our consent that all we have already acquired or will acquire until death should be used in accordance with our Lady's will for the conversion of sinners or the deliverance of souls from purgatory."

The text for this spiritual classic is also available freely online.

Already made the Total Consecration?

As a reminder, members of the Archconfraternity of Mary, Queen of Hearts, gain an indulgence of 300 days each time they renew their consecration with these words: "I am all Thine and all that I have is Thine, O most loving Jesus, through Mary, Thy most holy Mother."