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Consecration Aids: 27: Dependence on God and His Holy Mother
Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
Dependence on God and His Holy Mother
A mericans are a very possessive lot.
We pride ourselves with owning our own homes, our own cars, etc. All of which, of course, is good to a certain extent – to the extent that we recognize God as the supreme Owner and Possessor of all that we have. St. Paul told us this a long time ago, when he wrote: ”All things are yours, but you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.” ( Cor. III, 22-23).
This is basic Christianity. Yet how many of us go through life as if we were the absolute masters of our possessions? How many of us really stop to thank God and His Blessed Mother for the use of these material goods?
Yet, this is basic Christianity: we really belong to Christ and His Mother. All of us belong to Christ in an absolute sense, because He is God and because He has bought us at the price of all His Blood. We belong to Mary in a relative and restricted sense, because she is God’s Mother and because by her sufferings at the foot of the Cross she has contributed, in her own subordinate way, in the work of our redemption.
We Belong to Jesus and His Mother
Now take the average American boy or girl, Catholic I mean, and speak to him about the Fr. de Montfort’s Consecration to Mary. What are his first reactions? Well, here are a couple of samples.
- “You mean I’ll have to give over my car to Mary, Father?” seventeen year-old Mike asks.
- ”Positively, Mike. Everything you call your own, you give over to Christ through Mary.”
- ”And my football career, too, Father?” Joe asks with evident concern.
- ”Exactly, Joe, and all that your career will entail.”
- ”And my girl friend, too, Father”?
”That’s right, ” the priest snaps back, ”the girl you call your own! She also will have to be given over to Our Lady.”
Author: Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
This is the Twenty-seventh in a series of articles covering Consecration Aids.
The whole idea of Holy Slavery is to remind us continually of our utter dependence on God and His holy Mother and to put our complete trust in them. This is elementary Christianity.
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You might have dropped a bomb on New York City, the effect would not have been more stunning. ”Listen,” the priest goes on somewhat impatiently, ”you are really not giving anything to Our Lady because everything you are and have already belongs to her and to Christ. He is the King and Center of all hearts and she is the Queen of all hearts !”
By the blank stare on their faces the priest could see that they still didn’t understand. Yet he was only giving them basic Christianity.
We Are Creatures of God, and Depend on Him
And that’s what I like about Holy Slavery: it’s basic Christianity. It’s based on the fundamental, inescapable, stubborn fact that we are creatures of God and, consequently, that we depend on Him for all that we are and all that we have; that He is the absolute Master of our lives and destiny. And, secondly, that because Mary is the Mother of God and Queen of the Universe, she possesses with Christ, and subordinated to Him of course, rights over our souls.
To quote the words of Pope Pius XII : “. . . her kingdom is as vast as that of her Son and God since nothing is excluded from her dominion.”
Now I understand why St. Louis de Montfort says of Holy Slavery: ”We cannot see how it could be condemned without overturning the foundations of Christianity.”
It is this radical concept (”radical” in the Latin sense of ”proceeding from the root”) of our utter dependence on God for everything, both in the material and spiritual orders, that our materially prosperous generation needs to grasp. It isn’t an easy lesson to learn, I grant, particularly for our independence loving youth. Yet, I say that it is a lesson that can best be learned when we are still very young because then we are still close to our ”roots.” No one understands, in a practical way, his dependence upon another better than a child. The child knows that everything it receives, from a kiss on the cheek to the new tricycle, is a gift from mother or dad, or both. The further we get away from our youth and its spirit the more we are inclined to forget our entire dependence on God and His Mother.
Basic Christianity
The whole idea of Holy Slavery is to remind us continually of our utter dependence on God and His holy Mother and to put our complete trust in them. This is elementary Christianity. You don’t have to be a spiritual giant to understand this; not even to put it into practice. But if you do ”get serious” and begin living it, then for sure you will become a spiritual Goliath!
A priest friend of mine tried it a few years back. He consecrated himself as a slave to Jesus through Mary. He even gave Mary his old ”car.” Now, I don’t know if she didn’t like the ”car” but I do know that she soon handed him a brand new model of that particular year!
I’m not claiming that if you give Mary your old car she’ll immediately get you a limousine! But I am claiming that you never give anything to Our Lady but that she ”swamps” you with tokens of her affection and motherly solicitude.
Try it for yourself. You’ll see what I mean ! Of course, there’s one condition to all this. What is it ? – That you become a child once again! Don’t you agree that this is basic Christianity ?
