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From True Devotion
To the Blessed Virgin Mary, Nos. 120-121
Nature of perfect devotion to the Blessed Virgin
or perfect consecration to Jesus Christ
120. As all perfection
consists in our being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus it naturally
follows that the most perfect of all devotions is that which conforms, unites,
and consecrates us most completely to Jesus. Now of all God's creatures Mary
is the most conformed to Jesus. It therefore follows that, of all devotions,
devotion to her makes for the most effective consecration and conformity
to him. The more one is consecrated to Mary, the more one is consecrated
to Jesus. That is why perfect consecration to Jesus is but a perfect and
complete consecration of oneself to the Blessed Virgin, which is the devotion
I teach; or in other words, it is the perfect renewal of the vows and promises
of holy baptism.
121. This devotion consists in giving oneself entirely to Mary in order to
belong entirely to Jesus through her. It requires us to give:
(1) Our body with
its senses and members;
(2) Our soul with its faculties;
(3) Our present material possessions and all we shall acquire in the future;
(4) Our interior and spiritual possessions, that is, our merits, virtues
and good actions of the past, the present and the future.
In other words,
we give her all that we possess both in our natural life and in our spiritual
life as well as everything we shall acquire in the future in the order of
nature, of grace, and of glory in heaven. This we do without any reservation,
not even of a penny, a hair, or the smallest good deed. And we give for all
eternity without claiming or expecting, in return for our offering and our
service, any other reward than the honour of belonging to our Lord through
Mary and in Mary, even though our Mother were not - as in fact she always
is - the most generous and appreciative of all God's creatures.
Prayers
for the Second Week |
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