I haven't bought any of her books yet. my friend bought all the volumes that have been released, and I hope to borrow them as she finishes them. I've just been listening to Father Robert Young reading and commenting on the diary at http://www.divinewilltallahassee.com/Home
I haven't done the consecration before, and I would love to do it! Yesterday I bought 33 Days to Morning Glory for my Kindle, and I'm looking forward to April 10th. As a newbie I will appreciate all the help and encouragement you guys/gals can give!
awesome Ela...you've come to the right place for more information...and hopefully you can join us too! Not sure what you know of the consecration, but in a nutshell, we will be consecrating ourselves to Mary, and by doing so we give her permission to take over our lives and form/mold us into saints. She will lead you on the most direct path to Jesus and to His will in your life. All prayers we say go to Mary, where she augments them and distributes them in the best way possible where they are most needed. It is the best thing you can do for your and your family's salvation. For the details on what consecration is and why do it, you should read True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montford. The book also includes his consecration, which is 33 days of preparation leading to the day of consecration. I found it available online at http://totalconsecration.ageofmary.com/ . There is also another de Montford book on this website called Secret of Mary which this site recommends reading beforehand, which I think is shorter. You could also just read about consecrations on wiki or other web sites. So, the consecration itself. We picked May 13th, Our Lady of Fatima feast day as the day we will consecrate ourselves to Mary. We will start our 33 day prep on April 10th. The prep includes a daily reading/reflection. I will start a thread on April 10th so we can post (if you want to) any thoughts, reflections, distractions, etc. we may have as we journey for 33 days toward our consecration day. Most of us doing the consecration will be using the 33 Days to Morning Glory book by Fr Michael Gaitely (http://www.amazon.com/Days-Morning-...d_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1JFJ05DFN061EHPQ68R9 kindle or paperback). So, that is where we will get the daily readings and reflections from. It also has all the consecration prayers you need. He takes writings from de Montford, St. Maximilan Kolbe, St. Theresa, and Pope JPII the great as the daily reflections. That's kind of what we are doing. It wil bear lots of fruit in your life. Let us know if you have any questions!
the group continues to grow...Adoremus and Miriam...hopefully Ela...how wonderful...our mother is certainly smiling. Who will she nudge next
Thank you! Question, though. I hear that after the Consecration, when you pray, your prayers that are normally said, for example, prayers of intercession to the saints, will now go through the saints and then to Mary. She, in turn, will make them beautiful before presenting them to her Son. Do I have this correct?
yes, that is pretty much correct. that is explained in True Devotion to Mary. After the consecration, whenever you pray, your prayers go to Mary, where she augments them and presents them to God. I believe Montford described it as Mary taking your simple prayer but before she presents your prayer to God, she puts it on a silver platter with a bouquet of flowers. You actually increase the grace or merits of your prayers by going through Mary. What was different for me was I no longer pray for a certain intention or family member. I just pray. It takes the burden off a bit, with so much to pray for and so little time. I leave it up to Mary as she knows best where my prayers are needed most urgently. She also know my family members and who are most dear to me, so she will make sure they are taken care of prayer-wise. It's probably easier with my prayers increased by offering them all to our mother.
Thank you. I will look into the books you mentioned. I don't have much money, but I know Our Mother will provide. <3
PotatoSack said "What was different for me was I no longer pray for a certain intention or family member. I just pray." I have read True Devotion to Mary and finished my 33 day consecration, however I did not understand from either one that we should stop praying for our family, the dying relative or any other special people. My understanding was that our general prayers and our everyday living out our duties in prayer are to be given over to Mary to use as she see's fit. I will always have my special intentions, which include people in my life the go through Mary as well as my daily offerings.
I tell her, 'Every prayer is yours, but I ask you to intercede in a special way for N. and for everyone in the world who is in a similar situation.'
Fatima, from what I read in True Devotion and 33 Days to Morning Glory, it is best to offer all of our prayers to Mary, to do with as she wishes...give her everything. By doing this, it does not mean I have stopped praying for my family or other specific concerns. On the contrary, by giving it all to Mary, and trusting in her completely that she knows and will provide whatever grace my family needs and she will never be outdone in generosity, I feel my family benefits more with more graces. I used to pray for the salvation of my individual family members...I used to pray for a job, but I don't do that anymore...I just offer my prayers to Mary knowing she knows my needs and family concerns and I'm sure she'll take care of it. Of course, if someone asks me to pray for them, or a forum prayer intention, when my dad died...I prayed specifically for those intentions. But that's been the exception and not the rule. It is actually quite liberating not worrying about all the specific intentions...my mother's got it covered!! I've pasted below the parts of True Devotion that discuss this (starts on pg 53 and pg 57 in my book). It's discussed starting on pg 40-44 in 33 days to morning glory. we also discussed it a lot in last years consecration thread. I pasted that link below the True Devotion quote, and the specific discussion starts on page 4, post #61. True Devotion 121. This devotion consists in giving oneself entirely to Mary in order to belong entirely to Jesus through her. It requires us to give: Our body with its senses and members; Our soul with its faculties; Our present material possessions and all we shall acquire in the future; Our interior and spiritual possessions, that is, our merits, virtues and good actions of the past, the present and the future. 132. Some may object that this devotion makes us powerless to help the souls of our relatives, friends and benefactors, since it requires us to give our Lord, through Mary, the value of our good works, prayers, penances, and alms-giving. To them I reply: It is inconceivable that our friends, relatives and benefactors should suffer any loss because we have dedicated and consecrated ourselves unconditionally to the service of Jesus and Mary; it would be an affront to the power and goodness of Jesus and Mary who will surely come to the aid of our relatives, friends and benefactors whether from our meagre spiritual assets or from other sources. This devotion does not prevent us from praying for others, both the living and the dead, even though the application of our good works depends on the will of our Blessed Lady. On the contrary, it will make us pray with even greater confidence. http://motheofgod.com/threads/our-consecration-to-mary-thread.4383/page-4 Post #61
yes, she certainly provides! the first site I gave has both de Montford books online for free. 33 days to morning glory would need to be purchased. but you could do the de Montford consecration, which is online.
kathy k, From the Book of Job we perceive that the Lord determines how much leeway satan has to attack us. I would be surprised and amazed if it were true, but perhaps the embracing of the Divine Will drastically reduces said leeway. Then again, the experience of new graces sometimes provides a wall of protection for a season. Keep us posted! FOUR MORE DAYS! Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
PS, So true. This confidence in Our Lady is a gift made available to each of us in the Consecration. After all, when I was a boy of 5, who did I have supreme confidence in but my Mom. Let us be as little children, thankful to Abba for the gift of Jesus' Mother, and our Mother, too! Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!
PotatoSack, what I was saying is that we should not stop making specific prayers for specific people or events. However, all prayer flows, from those consecrated to Mary, through Mary. The line that I quoted from your post was that you "stopped praying for certain intention or a family member" seemed like you were not going to pray for those closest to you and that is not what total consecration means. To Jesus through Mary does not keep us from personal intentions for family.
Of course we all have prayer intentions for our family, friends, and situations. Those never go away. However, after being consecrated, I stopped earmarking a rosary for a specific intention. All my rosaries simply went to Mary so she could do with them as she wished, and by doing so, I believe all of my intentions are covered through Mary augmenting my prayers and trust that she knows the needs of my family and myself and all of my intentions. I have maybe 2 pages of prayer intentions in my spiritual journal, and the intentions range from the salvation of the souls of all my family, to the end of abortion to prayers for priests, to a job where I can actually support myself, etc. After the consecration last year, I said in prayer to Mary...you know my list of intentions and what is in my heart. I won't keep referring back to them or earmarking prayers for them...I trust you've got them covered. From now on, I won't even worry about them because I'm sending all my prayers to you and you will take care of it. To me, consecration is giving everything I have in prayer, fasting, offering up of suffering to Mary for her intentions. This does not mean I'm not praying for my family or other intentions. In fact, to me it's just the opposite...my intentions are covered in ways I could never achieve by earmarking my rosary for a single intention. It was very hard for me to stop praying for a job, as I needed one so desperately. But I do believe that is what the consecration asks us to do, so that is what I did with the belief that my mother knows I needed a job and she will see to it without me calling it out as a specific intention. It is very rare that I pray for a specific intention. After all, Mary knows all of my prayer intentions already, and by sending my prayers to her, she will see that they get covered.
We are very blessed to have this group and these forum threads to help us through consecration in a very special way. I have read its advised to repeat consecration on the same date each time but last September I was on my own, it was still an amazing time but this time round I look forward to a community. I doing DeMonford's consecration again, due to moving house recently I have been way too scattered to order the book, next time...
Exactly! When we consecrate ourselves to her, everything is hers. And then she makes our concerns her concerns in special way, I think. I've found it to be very freeing; I don't have to worry about letting an intention slip, because Mother Mary is on it!
