WHAT IS TOTAL CONSECRATION?

   It is a total surrender of oneself to Jesus thru Mary as a holy slave of love, and then striving to perform all our actions with Mary, in Mary, through Mary, and for Mary. We choose a day or feast day on which we willingly and lovingly consecrate to Jesus thru Mary our body, soul, material possessions and spiritual possessions (merits, graces, virtues, atonements).

....God came to us through Mary so He wants us also to go to Him through a true devotion to Our Lady— the TOTAL CONSECRATION. This devotion is the safest, easiest, shortest and most perfect way of approaching Jesus, because by this devotion we give to God through the hands of Mary all  our good works. She purifies, beautifies and makes them acceptable to Her Son. She enriches our good works with her own merits and virtues. It is as if a poor farmer, wishing to win the favor of the king, goes to the queen and gives her the apple- his only possession- for her to offer it to the king. The queen puts it on a beautiful golden plate. The apple in itself is not a gift worthy of a king, but because the queen herself puts it in a golden plate and even surrounded with beautiful flowers, it becomes fit for any king.

Not More Perfect to Go Straight to Jesus Without Mary

Beware, chosen soul, of thinking that it is more perfect to direct your work and intention straight to Jesus or straight to God. Without Mary, your work and your intention will be of little value, But if you go to God through Mary, your work will become Mary’s work, and consequently will be most noble and most worthy of God. - St. Louis Marie De Montfort

LIVING THE SPIRIT OF THE TOTAL CONSECRATION
 
   The Total Consecration is a great gift of the Holy Spirit. It is not just about praying the formula but living its spirit. Living the Total Consecration means:

*taking Mary as our model for doing God’s will-- with humility, simplicity and great faith-- as when she said yes to God when He sent Angel Gabriel to announce that she would be the Mother of the Savior, saying. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.”

*asking her to intercede before Jesus for everything we need

 *offering everything  we do for Jesus always through her so she enriches them with her virtues and merits, thereby making them most pleasing to God.

 *obeying our Queen’s smallest request so she can act in us for the glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

*praying in Mary. When we praise and thank God, we do so in Mary. When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we place Him in Mary and give Jesus the greatest delight.

*giving Mary the full right to dispose of whatever we do and have, for the greater glory of God.

   Mary is the only creature that is full of grace and without sin.  She is therefore the only creature who loved, served and pleased God at every moment of her life. When we live the Total Consecration, the Holy Spirit enables us to act in Mary, act through Mary and act for Mary, thereby enabling us to love, serve and please God as Mary did. That’s why we give the greatest pleasure and glory to God when we do everything in Mary. In this way, Mary will help us forget self everywhere and in all things and live only for God. GOD ALONE.

VICTORY OF MARY AND HER ARMY

   Throughout history Satan has worked very hard to turn our minds and hearts away from Mary because he knows only too well that those who turn to Mary always find Jesus. He knows that through the Total Consecration, we are beyond his reach because we are safe inside Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant. He knows that from the beginning of history (Genesis 3:15) it is Mary who will crush his head.

   So Satan and his devils fiercely wage war against Mary and her cohort (army) of angels, saints, consecrated souls and all those who walk along the way of love and holiness. But VICTORY IS OURS through Mary:  our daily battles and our final battle. We await the Final Victory, the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that we glimpsed in Apocalypse 12: 1-17 “Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman adorned with the sun standing on the moon and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown.”

  “It is with my cohort that I am building up, each day, the triumph of my Immaculate Heart. It is with my cohort that I am preparing the way along which the glorious reign of Jesus will come to you, and it will be a reign of love, and of grace, of holiness, of justice, and of peace.” (Mama Mary through Fr. Stefano Gobbi, no. 314, “Marian Movement for Priests”)

Why is the Total Consecration radically different from other consecrations?

   To crush the serpent’s head means to die to the powers of our soul and senses of our body. We make use of the things of this world as if we made no use of them because “Unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.” (Jn. 12: 24-25).
   If we do not die to ourselves, we shall not bear fruit. Therefore, we must choose among our prayers or devotions that which will best lead us to the death to ourselves. That devotion is the Total Consecration to Jesus thru Mary by St. Louis de Montfort.

   The Total Consecration is not just a prayer you say and renew only once a year. You need to live its interior practice of performing all your actions daily with, through and for Mary. This means being totally dependent on her as a child is to his mother. You become her little slave of love and do everything she suggests to you which is God’s Will for you. Before you know it, she will be working great wonders through you. She will crush all the devils and recreate this world into the glorious Kingdom of her beloved Son Jesus.

THROUGH THE TOTAL CONSECRATION, MARY CAUSES JESUS TO LIVE IN THE SOUL
  (SECRET OF MARY by St. Louis Marie de Montfort, nos. 56, 57)

    56.  As Mary is everywhere the fruitful Virgin, she produces in the depths of the soul where she dwells a purity of heart and body, a singleness of intention and purpose, and fruitfulness in good works. Do not think, dear soul, that Mary, the most fruitful of all God’s creatures, who went as far as to give birth to a God-man, remains idle in a docile soul. She causes Jesus to be continuously in that soul and that soul to live in continuous union with Jesus. If Jesus is equally the fruit of Mary for each individual soul as for all souls in general, he is even more especially her fruit and her masterpiece in the soul where she is present.

   57. To sum up, Mary becomes all things for the soul that wishes to serve Jesus Christ. She enlightens his mind with her pure faith. She deepens his heart with her humility. She enlarges and inflames his heart with her charity, makes it pure with her purity, makes it noble and great through her motherly care. But why dwell any longer on this? Experience alone will teach us the wonders wrought by Mary in the soul, wonders so great that the wise and the proud, and even a great number of devout people find it hard to credit them.”

EXCELLENCE OF THIS PERFECT DEVOTION:
(from “Secret of Mary” by St. Louis Marie de Montfort, nos. 35-41)

1. IMITATION OF THE BLESSED TRINITY

  “In giving ourselves to Jesus thru Mary’s hands, we imitate God the Father, who gave His Son only through Mary…God the Son, who inspires us to go to Him using the same   means He used in  coming to us, that is, through Mary…the Holy Spirit, who bestows His graces and gifts upon us only through Mary.”

2.  IT HONORS JESUS

  “We are showing that we need Mary His Mother as our Advocate and Mediatrix with Him who is our Mediator. In short, we are practicing humility, something which always gladdens the heart of God.”

3. IT PURIFIES AND EMBELLISHES OUR GOOD WORKS

  “Consecrating ourselves in this way to Jesus through Mary implies placing our good deeds in Mary’s hands…Dear God, how everything we do comes to so very little! But let us adopt this devotion and place everything in Mary’s hands. When we have given her all we possibly can, emptying ourselves completely to do her honor, she far surpasses our generosity and gives us very much for very little. She enriches us with her own merits and virtues. She places our gift on the golden dish of her charity and clothes us, as Rebecca clothed Jacob, in the beautiful garments of her first-born and only Son, Jesus Christ, which are His merits, and which are at her disposal.”

4. CHARITY IN THE HIGHEST DEGREE

  “Giving ourselves in this way to Our Lady is a practice of charity towards our neighbor of the highest possible degree, because in making ourselves over to Mary, we give her all that we hold most dear and we let her dispose of it as she wishes in favor of the living and the dead.”

5. IT INCREASES THE GRACE OF GOD IN US

  “When you follow Mary you will not go astray; when you pray to her, you will not despair; when your mind is on her, you will not wander; when she holds you up, you will not fall; when she protects you, you will have no fear; when she guides you, you will feel no fatigue; when she is on your side, you will arrive safely home.' (St. Bernard) And again, 'She keeps her Son from striking us; she prevents the devil from harming us; she preserves virtue in us; he prevents our merits from being lost and our graces from receding. 'These words of St. Bernard explain in substance all that I have said. Had I but this one motive to impel me to choose this devotion, namely, that of keeping me in the grace of God and increasing that grace, my heart would burn with longing for it.”

6. IT RENDERS THE SOUL FREE

  “This devotion makes the soul truly free by imbuing it with the liberty of the children of God.0 Since we lower ourselves willingly to a state of slavery out of love for Mary, our dear Mother, she out of gratitude opens wide our hearts enabling us to walk with giant strides in the way of God’s commandments.1 She delivers our soul from weariness, sadness and scruples. It was this devotion that Our Lord taught to Mother Agnes of Langeac, a religious who died in the odor of sanctity, as a sure way of being freed from the severe suffering and confusion of mind which afflicted her. “Make yourself,” He said, “my Mother’s slave and wear her little chain.” She did so, and from that time onwards her troubles ceased.”