Q&A: I’ve been trying to coax some of my friends to make the consecration as taught by Saint Louis de Montfort, but I’m not having much luck. They don’t seem to see any reason for doing it. Why make a Total Consecration?
Fr. Gaffney, SMM
Why Make a Total Consecration?
If Father de Montfort were to be presented with your statement, he’d answer this way; “Mary helps us to persevere to the end in the grace of God. Were there but this one motive to incite in me a desire for consecration, namely that it is a sure means of keeping me in the grace of God and even of increasing that grace in me, my heart ought to burn with longing for it”. (cf. SM 40, TD 173).
The practical missionary realizes the gift of perseverance. Especially final perseverance is a strong incentive to live the perfect consecration. Without claiming that a person living the perfect consecration is certain of final perseverance, Montfort stresses that “Mary does obtain for those who are devoted to her the graces of fidelity to God and perseverance”. (TD 175).
The entire section on the motives and effects of total consecration – chapters five and six of the True Devotion – will supply you with more than enough reasons why it is such a privilege to make the consecration to Jesus-Wisdom through Mary.
“Mary helps us to persevere to the end in the grace of God. Were there but this one motive to incite in me a desire for consecration, namely that it is a sure means of keeping me in the grace of God and even of increasing that grace in me, my heart ought to burn with longing for it”.
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