Back in 2001, our associate pastor introduced the parish to the “Total Consecration of Jesus through Mary,” by Saint Louis de Montfort. Like so many things with God, we entered without recognizing the bigger consequences of the reality. For the uninitiated, the thirty-three day spiritual exercise, starting it seems a touch archaic, but reasonable. It’s only once you’ve immersed yourself that you discover this process takes effort. It is like signing up for a 5K. We all think, I can do a 5K. But training so that a 5K does not leave you spent for the rest of the day, that demands consistent daily attempts to whittle the 5K down to a reasonable distance in your own mind. So also, the Total Consecration operates.
You pray, and you discover, you’re not done yet. Like parenthood, like falling in love, like entering into the mass, there is an eternity packed in what seems like a small thing –all those mustardseeds God grows into the largest of shrubs.
For a while, my husband and I did this process each year and well, but life got crowded and busy and we keep missing the starting dates. So I’m going to post them here in an attempt to get us ready for doing this, this year. I will say, I do not do this consecration perfectly, but I know it grows my piety, my devotion, and my love of the Blessed Mother when I submit myself to the discipline of taking it on. Additionally, piety if not a spiritual gift one is predisposed to, must be willed through practice. Here is my attempt to practice.
Here’s the website with the best info on the Total Consecration for those interested.
I’ve been working on taking little steps, in health (walking in the morning), in art –sketching one per day, in growing my mind (reading for 20 minutes) and writing (500 words), and this proposal is my add to develop my spiritual life. If you didn’t click on the link, what you need to know is, there are starting dates for this discipline.
Jan 9th to finish on The Feast of the Apparition of the Immaculate Virgin Mary at Lordes on February 11th.
February 20th to finish on The Feast of the Annunciation, March 25th.
June 13th to finish on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16th.
July 13th to finish on the Feast of The Assumption, August 15th.
August 6 to finish on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8th.
August 13th to finish on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th.
October 19th to complete your consecration on November 21st, for the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
November 5th is your starting date to finish on December 8th, The Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
November 9th means you finish your total consecration on December 12th, to celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe.
However, the Blessed Mother rejoices in all our efforts, so I don’t think she’d be upset if we just started already. The goal is to honor her, and to grow closer to her son by detatching our own selves from those things in the world that keep us from Jesus.
The specific starting dates stress me out, because I often find I’m not sure what day it is even after looking at the newspaper, the phone, my planner and having organized my day according to a presumption about where we are in the week. So I give you the dates, but I also know, some years, I’ve started on the feast day rather than ended –and don’t think that bothers Our Blessed Mother one witt.
It’s rather like in our house, where we celebrate Birthday Month –because 24 hours is just not enough time to celebrate anything.
So prepare to celebrate Mary, and know it will expand outward, because this is God we’re talking about –and all his gifts, and all relationship with Him, expands out to infinity. It must. It’s just, will we go deeper and deeper in, or decide at some point, to stop or tread water. Mary always invites us to go further.
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