Q&A: If the consecration as taught by Saint Louis de Montfort is nothing more than the perfect renewal of the promises of baptism, Why all this insistence on Mary?
Fr. Gaffney, SMM
Submitted by JB of Phoenix, AZ.
Especially in the True Devotion and the Secret of Mary, Montfort develops at length the marian aspect of the consecration and this for chiefly three reasons which we can only summarize here.
First, Our Lady’s role is clearly a necessary element in the present order of redemption. It is intrinsic to the foundation itself of salvation history, the incarnation. Mary must, therefore, play a pre-dominant role in authentic consecration theology and spirituality. Montfort has also personally experienced the efficacity of contemplative Marian Spirituality in bringing about a new depth of baptismal commitment.
Second, the authentic Marian dimension – although so powerful in uniting us to Jesus, – is also, Montfort believes, the most unknown, the most misunderstood and, therefore, the most neglected dimension of our baptismal life in Jesus Christ. It is a “secret of the Most High” (SM 1) which he is inspired to explain.
Finally, Montfort consecration spirituality reaches its turning point in “losing oneself in Mary,” for it is in her and through her that our Consecration – Jesus – came to be. Mary is, then, the privileged entry into a constantly deeper baptismal union with Christ Jesus.
It is especially for these reasons that Saint Louis de Montfort explains at some length the essential Marian aspect of the perfect renewal of our baptismal promises. For the saint, this in no way cancels out the other essential dimensions of his consecration spirituality: Trinitarian/ Christocentric (adoring Jesus as the eternal and incarnate Wisdom), total apostolic, baptismal.
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