Consecration Aids: 21: Spiritual Bookkeeping

A FELLOW doesn’t have to be told that, to be successful in business he has to keep an eye on his bookkeeping, on what he spends as well as what he takes in; that, guess work and poor accounting often lead to bankruptcy. Seems to me, that’s as plain as the nose on your face.

Track Spiritual Gains

Yet, obvious as this observation is in the material order, somehow it doesn’t always register in people’s minds when transposed into the super-natural order. Of course, I’m speaking for myself. (I might mention, in parentheses, that I’m an odd sort of fellow anyway ! ) Seriously though, I was the kind of slave of Mary who thinks he can live his Consecration without making any special effort to keep tabs on himself or to measure his gains and losses. I was the type who figures that when St. Louis de Montfort tells us Holy Slavery is an ”easy” way to become a saint, he means ”without effort on our part!” In a word, I had to be told by my own experience that the word ”easy” is to be understood in comparison with other ways – just as going up into a building in an elevator is easier than climbing the stairs. In both instances, however, you must put forth some minimum of energy, if only the pressing of a button!

And so I lived – or so I thought – my total consecration, without bothering to examine my conscience daily on my spiritual gains or losses; without even asking myself whether or not I was being faithful to the terms of my consecration. I soon discovered, to my utter dismay, that despite my total consecration to Jesus through Mary, I was still a ”spiritual platypus. ” My nose now in, now above, ground! I was still falling into the same sins and bad habits. Also, I wasn’t more humble, more kind, more charitable. I knew something was wrong, but, put my finger on it, I couldn’t for the life of me. Our Lady – as always – came to my rescue.

How Does One Know They Are Faithful to Devotion to Our Lady?

One day, as I was reading my True Devotion, I was suddenly struck by the insistence de Montfort puts on the ”faithfulness” to the practice of his devotion. The Saint makes many a promise to his reader, it is true, but they are all conditioned on this one prerequisite: ”If you are faithful to the exterior and interior practices of this devotion” (T.D. No. 213) .

Now, how can I know if I am ”faithful” or not to these practices, I thought, unless I take inventory, unless I check up on myself continually, daily even ? . . . unless I make this the subject of my daily examination of conscience, more especially of my particular examen? Perhaps that’s what’s wrong with my consecration, I mused. Perhaps I’m not practicing it the way I should. Why haven’t I thought of the spiritual examen idea before this?

Daily Examination

And speaking of examination of conscience, wasn’t it St. Ignatius who said that particular examination of conscience is more important than meditation itself ? The reason, of course, is that it helps us overcome our defects one by one and finally rids us of them. Naturally, the same is true for acquiring virtue; through faithfulness to one’s particular examination, spiritual writers tell us that one can acquire and cultivate virtue to a high degree.

Applying these principles to my total consecration to Mary, I then and there resolved to make some point of my consecration the daily subject of my particular examen. Take for instance the point of giving Our Lady my body with all its senses.” For one whole week I will concentrate on what the spiritual authors call ”custody of the eyes.”