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Lisa R
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I have many questions but for now I'll just ask one. 
What exactly is Total Consecration to Mary and how does one do it?
Sorry for being so ignorant but this is all very new to me. 
Thanks!
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God Bless!
Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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Cindy Mac
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I'm totally in the same boat as you Lisa. I'm glad you asked the question first. 
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Cindy - wife to Chris, mommy to my 4 sons!
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St. Anne's Academy
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Helen
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Total Consecration means that you want to belong to Our Lady totally. You desire to be so much like her Son, that you want to begin as a child of Mary, just as Jesus did.
We're reading True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort who explains in detail the merits of belonging to Mary and the reasons for belong to her.
At the end of the book, St. Louis recommends a plan for consecrating yourself to Our Lady. In May we're planning to follow his schedule.
St. Louis lived in the 17th century (right?)
A more recent saint, St. Maximilian Kolbe, continues with the plan of St. Louis. What I find interesting in St. Maximilian, is the development of Our Lady's presence. The consecration is an invitation for Our Lady to dwell in your heart so that her virtues, her thoughts, her conformity to God's Will becomes your own.
Cindy and Lisa (and whoever else has the desire), I hope you will consider joining us. This devotion is amazingly fruitful. It brings the Lord very close to you. Please feel free to ask more questions. There are many here who have experienced the benefits of this devotion.
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Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
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Erica Sanchez
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Helen,
If I made a Consecration through a Militia Immaculata progam years ago, is it the same thing that you are all doing here? I was a bit younger, actually Cash and I did it together when we were dating, so I really want to 're-do' it as I think it would be somehow more meaningful now. Would I re-consecrate?
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Have a beautiful and fun day!
Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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Helen
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Erica Sanchez wrote:
Helen,
If I made a Consecration through a Militia Immaculata progam years ago, is it the same thing that you are all doing here? I was a bit younger, actually Cash and I did it together when we were dating, so I really want to 're-do' it as I think it would be somehow more meaningful now. Would I re-consecrate? |
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It is my understanding that the Militia consecration and the St. Louis de Montfort consecration are essentially the same thing.
St. Maximilian builds upon the foundation of St. Louis saying,
"This is the greatest thing I've ever seen, how can I take it further?"
St. Louis says "slave" of Mary. St. Maximilian says, "I want to be Our Lady's slave and I'll even go further and say, 'her property and possession." A slave retains his free will, an object doesn't even have free will. St. Maximilian growing on the foundation set by St. Louis, develops this devotion.
As another example, St. Maximilian made a private vow of Total consecration and advised the friars to do the same thing. Just taking the "promise" one step further.
It would be wonderful to have you join in this Erica. I guess I would call yours a renewal.
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Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
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Erica Sanchez
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Renewal - that word escaped me earlier! Thanks so much, Helen, for the explanation. I am really feeling pulled to do this with you......
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Have a beautiful and fun day!
Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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alicegunther
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Erica Sanchez wrote:
| I am really feeling pulled to do this with you...... |
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I'll bet you are! Particularly with Lissa as your companion! 
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
   
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Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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Erica Sanchez
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Yes! I just laughed to her over the fact that it is taking her excitement about the Marian shrine (practically in both of our backyards!) to get me interested in this study. We drive by that beautiful statue several times a week and have good friends that attend that church!
I'm going to order the book today and get caught up!
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Have a beautiful and fun day!
Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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cathhomeschool
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Helen wrote:
St. Maximilian builds upon the foundation of St. Louis saying,
"This is the greatest thing I've ever seen, how can I take it further?"
St. Louis says "slave" of Mary. St. Maximilian says, "I want to be Our Lady's slave and I'll even go further and say, 'her property and possession." A slave retains his free will, an object doesn't even have free will. |
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This is a radical thought. I have been rereading bits and pieces of The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux over the last few weeks (I love her writing and her Little Way. She is so gentle and loving and simple.) and came across a passage that expresses what Helen has said. In Chapter 1 (Therese was still a child), she says,
"Much later, when I understood what perfection was, I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself. I understood that there were many kinds of sanctity and that each soul was free to respond to the approaches of Our Lord and to do little or much for Him – in other words, to make a choice among the sacrifices He demands. Then, just as when I was a child I cried: “My God, I choose all. I do not want to be a saint by halves. I am not afraid to suffer for You. I fear only one thing – that I should keep my own will. So take it, for I choose all that You will.”
I think of it almost as a fear (or the fact) that if we keep our free will, we will surely fall, because we are human. So better (safer?) to hand our will to God so that we will more certainly follow His plan for us.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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kjohnson
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Something to keep in mind is that God will never take our free wills from us. Our freedom was a gift from God and is part of our being created in His Image. So much did God respect our freedom, that in redeeming us He did not remove the consequences of the misuse of our freedom (death), but transformed it into a passage to eternal Life.
The goal of the spiritual life is to exercise and train our wills to be conformed with His. That is why we fast and pray. As we participate in the life of the Trinity we mirror Him more and more. Our wills are transformed but we always have the freedom to turn away. Otherwise, there would be no room for authentic love. Love is always freely given and freely received.
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Katherine
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cathhomeschool
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Oh absolutely, Katherine! I'm glad you posted this, because I would hate for anyone to misinterpret my comments.
Somewhere recently I read that free will is the only "perfect" gift that we can give to God, because it is the only thing that is really ours to give. (That was the gist, though I probably got the words wrong.) I think that we do that by trying to conform our will to His. And we grow in ability to give our will to Him (as you said) through fasting, prayer, and by sacrificing in small ways so that little by little we are strong enough to make the big sacrifices.
I know that we cannot literally give our will to God. We would be mere puppets then. What is love if there is no free will? What I intended to express was my thought that, if I do what I want to do, it will rarely be what God wants (because I'm lazy and don't like pain). So I would rather "give my will to God" meaning that I will try my best to do what He would do with me if He did control my will. I will try to live a saintly, loving, generous life. It's a tall order and I fall way short, but that's what baby steps are for and why fasting and sacrifice and prayer are so beautiful and necessary. Am I making sense?
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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kjohnson
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cathhomeschool wrote:
| Oh absolutely, Katherine! I'm glad you posted this, because I would hate for anyone to misinterpret my comments. |
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I understood what you meant by quoting St. Therese. I have quite a love for her myself. I just offered the clarification because I think sometimes this strong language can be confused by others who don't understand the context in which it was said. For me Therese was expressing what you are explaining. She would rather give up her own will than stray from her Father.
cathhomeschool wrote:
| Somewhere recently I read that free will is the only "perfect" gift that we can give to God, because it is the only thing that is really ours to give. (That was the gist, though I probably got the words wrong.) |
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I agree. What it all boils down to is a matter of LOVE...freely exchanged between a loving Father and his precious child.
cathhomeschool wrote:
| It's a tall order and I fall way short |
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And I am the first in this regard. And that is the frightful part of the spiritual life. The thing we must fear most is ourselves. Ultimately the decision is ours, whether to turn to God and accept His love, or turn away and reject it.
Absolutely! 
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Katherine
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Helen
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kjohnson wrote:
| Something to keep in mind is that God will never take our free wills from us. |
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Total consecration means that we *will* that Our Lady is the one who animates us. We choose to allow Our Lady to operate with us as her instrument, literally. THis entails a radical dying to self. But, with Our Lady she brings sweetness to this process despite being a challenging Mistress.
Total consecration is a complete self emptying so that her true presence may abide and with her purity and humility, Her Son reigns in our hearts.
I believe this is what Our Lady meant when she said at Fatima,
My Immaculate Heart will triumph.
Her triumph will be achieved as each, singular person hands over themselves to her so that her heart may reign over each person.
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Ave Maria!
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kjohnson
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I think this is more of a discussion about a human metaphor than the truth of our relationship with the Mother of God.
I suppose that is where I personally feel that the slave/object metaphor falls short. If it is our decision to empty ourselves, we are constantly using our gift of freedom to do so. A slave has been denied their freedom and an object has no freedom to begin with.
But that is the nature of all the metaphors we use to describe the unfathomable mystery of our Faith. We must use them to articulate the faith, but none are really adequate.
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Katherine
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aussieannie
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"Giving away our free will."
This phrase makes me think of Our Lord's words spoken on four different occasions in the New Testament:
Matt.10:39 wrote:
| He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake, shall find it. |
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kjohnson
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Yes, this is the reality of what our faith will sometimes cost us. If you read this in context with the other passages just before it, Jesus is telling us that sometimes we have to give up even our family ties to follow Him. We cannot love mother, father, brother or sister more than him.
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Katherine
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aussieannie
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I should have added more Katherine, I was going to, but I'm verbose most times, so I was being refreshing brief but TOO brief.  
These things seem paradoxical, we give over our free will (for the greater good of something, raising children forces as to do it everyday, priests and religious do it when they make vows they are bound to) which requires great strength of will to do it.
If we give our free will to Our Lady we are willing her to guide our lives completely and that is accepting a life of strengthing our wills daily.
It has a similar ring to the losing of life to gain it.
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Elizabeth
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I guess what troubles me about the metaphors is that slaves don't do their master's bidding out of love. Usually, they do it out fear. And objects don't do anything; they have it done to them. It's probably a matter of semantics and, to some degree, translation but it is disconcerting.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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kjohnson
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aussieannie wrote:
I should have added more Katherine, I was going to, but I'm verbose most times, so I was being refreshing brief but TOO brief.
These things seem paradoxical, we give over our free will (for the greater good of something, raising children forces as to do it everyday, priests and religious do it when they make vows they are bound to) which requires great strength of will to do it.
If we give our free will to Our Lady we are willing her to guide our lives completely and that is accepting a life of strengthing our wills daily.
It has a similar ring to the losing of life to gain it.
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I agree with Elizabeth regarding the idea that slavery and objectification always imply a complete lack of love. Fear and subjection is definitely the reality of a master slave relationship. I could never relate to my beautiful Mother as a master who I was enslaved to. And even more could I not relate to my Father through the eyes of a slave. The only person that ever binds us in slavery is the Evil One and Jesus conquered him in His death and resurrection.
I guess where my deeper problem lies is in this explanation of the role of our free will. In conforming our will, we are not "giving up our free will," but ignoring our own selfish desires. According to the scriptures and the early church fathers, a slave is someone who is controlled by their disordered passions and desires. The more we are transfigured into the image of God, the more authentically free we are. The more we die to selfishness, the more we gain control.
But to say that we are "giving up our free will." That just doesn't work. We are always using our free will to make a choice. A choice to turn to God. That's what repentance is. The original Greek work for repent (metanoia) means to turn around. We have to always turn around to follow God. There is never a point where we just deflate ourselves and let another person animate us. That would not be true salvation. True salvation is the transformation of man sharing in the Life of the Trinity and the true healing of the wounds of sin. Dying to self is not losing our freedom. Actually it is gaining it.
The reason I don't see that particular verse having a similar ring is that the act of choosing to follow God and to put Him above earthly family ties is that very act involves a use of our free will. It is never given up in the process. Not given up, but transformed.
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Katherine
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cathhomeschool
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kjohnson wrote:
| Fear and subjection is definitely the reality of a master slave relationship. I could never relate to my beautiful Mother as a master who I was enslaved to. |
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This was my general feeling that I couldn't quite put my finger on to express in words. I guess that's why I'm drawn to St. Therese's explanation: "Each soul was FREE to respond to the approaches of Our Lord and to do little or much for Him.... My God, I CHOOSE all...So take it [her free will], for I CHOOSE all that You will." And when one reads this passage in context of the rest of the book, it is obvious that Therese has a great love for our Lord.
I think that these distinctions are technicalities, meaning that I am sure that de Montfort and Kolbe meant the same thing (since they knew they couldn't literally give away their will), but some people reading any of these passages might get the wrong impression or feel it a rather drastic thing to say. That's why context is so important, and why I mention that reading St. Therese in context makes it obvious that all she did was done gently and out of love. I haven't read much of de Montfort and none of Kolbe, so I don't have a feeling for their writing yet.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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