Q&A: Having made the Total Consecration according to Saint Louis de Montfort, is it out of order to have Masses celebrated for specific intentions and individuals? How does one fulfill obligations to pray for the deceased, for one’s parents? Isn’t this a conflict?
Father J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
The general content of this inquiry is the most often asked question by those who have made their Act of Total Consecration. It must have also been so at the time of Saint Louis de Montfort himself. He addresses it explicitly in the True Devotion, #132, after having touched upon it in #124.
Here are some quotes of Montfort, in response to the question raised: “(The consecration is made) without interfering in any way with the obligations of the state of life we may be in at present, or may be placed in for the future for we make this consecration only according to the order of God and the duties of our state of life. But some may object that (the consecration) puts us in a state of incapacity for assisting the souls of our parents, friends and benefactors.
I answer them as follows: 1. That it is not credible that our parents, friends and benefactors should suffer from the fact of our being (consecrated) to the service of Our Lord and His holy Mother. To think thus would be to think un- worthily of the goodness and power of Jesus and Mary who know well how to assist our parents, friends and benefactors . . . The consecration does not hinder us from praying for others, [or having Mass celebrated for others) whether dead or living. The application of our good works depends on the will of Our Blessed Lady. They (Jesus and Mary) will never let themselves be outdone in gratitude.”
Even before making the consecration according to the spirit of Saint Louis de Montfort, everything we do, everything we request, is done with the implicit intention: Thy Will be done. Is that not the understood condition of all we are, of all we do? If it be not, then we can hardly say that we are christian. However, in the perfect consecration, we are explicitly and willingly making Thy Will be done the overriding rule of all that we are and of all that we do. In this sense, we surrender the value of all our good actions. Offering all lovingly and freely to Jesus through Mary results in a new depth of “belonging-to” the Lord. And all our friends and relatives, in fact the entire universe, benefit from this more intense union with the All-present God.
