Our Response is in love

Often we may find that we bear within us a greater desire to understand how to better live our consecration, how to make this act a true part of our everyday life and an identification with who we are and desire to be.

Without doubt we can found a clear example of how to live our consecration to Mary in our Beloved Holy Father, John Paul II. Perhaps you saw how in his life he came to be fully identified with our Blessed Mother; of how she was a very visible part of who he was and how he considered her essential in living fully our life as a Christians. Thanks be to God for the courageous example we found in him!

It is therefore, our goal to lay out some of the practical things which can make this devotion a very real lifestyle. In fact, this is the purpose of all the teachings of Christ, all of that the Spirit moves in our hearts and in our minds.... that the words we hear become life in us. Just as the Word of God took on human flesh and lived as a person, so should the words of God given to us daily become life in us, forming us into who we are as people.

And what better way to go about this than to follow closely the footsteps of the saints who have lived this consecration most perfectly and most abundantly. Their lives and their words speak eloquently not only about how to live in Mary, but most importantly about what a life in Mary can produce in each one of us.

The first thing we need to ask ourselves is this: What is the goal we seek by being consecrated to our Lady? In the words of St. Louis de Montfort, we would say that our goal is complete identification with the Eternal Wisdom, complete configuration with Christ Jesus. What is meant by this? We find the answer in Living Magisterium of the Church: It means that our goal is holiness of life: “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love.” (LG40).

If our goal is holiness than, through our devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, through our spiritual closeness with her, we open ourselves to that help which is especially necessary if we are going to achieve it. When we read the lives of the saints we can see that there isn’t one that did not have a profound love and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And even more, all of them say in one way or another that they owe their sanctity to Our Lady, to Her intercession.

St. Louis de Montfort is among those many, many saints who attained this Christian perfection through a special gift which he desired to share with others. He described his way of holiness as a “smooth, short, perfect and sure” Marian path of total consecration to the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, through our Lady. He knew full well of the great effort that is involved in drawing ever close to God, of the dangers and darkness that lay along the way. Holiness is great precisely because it is a claim to a splendid victory. It is a victory over evil, a decided struggle taken on by the soul to wage against the forces that fight in contrast to its determination to love God above all things and in all things. Holiness therefore is a hymn of victorious love.

Yet, since it is a struggle, a conquest, we are deeply in need of assistance on the way. St. Louis came to knew well through experience, that the greatest assistant was to be found in her in whom sin had never entered, in whom holiness was the very way of life. St. Louis understood clearly that he had a faithful and most powerful ally in our Lady, against the enemies of his soul and of his salvation, especially against Satan: “The humble Mary will always triumph over Satan, the proud one, and so great will be her victory that she will crush his head, the very seat of his pride. She will always unmask his serpent's cunning and expose his wicked plots. She will scatter to the winds his devilish plans and to the end of time keep her faithful servants from his cruel claws.” (True Devotion to Mary, 54)

Saint Pio of Pietreclina, a Franciscan priest and stigmatist who was canonized by John Paul II, and a great and devoted son of Our Lady,-- when was about 7 years old--, had such a fierce battle with Satan that it served him throughout his life to never underestimate his cunningness. He writes of the experience: “As I was praying one day, I had a vision. In my vision, I found myself led by a guide before a vast field where there was a great multitude of people divided into two groups. I was placed in a space that existed between the two groups. Suddenly I saw a man appear in front of me, who was coming towards me; he was so very tall and big and had such a horrible, dark appearance. I felt so completely dismayed before that horrible personage and yet I heard my guide tell me that I was now expected to fight against him. At these words, my face turned pale and I began to tremble all over and was about to fall to the ground, so great was my terror. I then felt my guide support me with his arm so as to help me recover from my fright. I then turned to my guide and begged him to spare me from the fury of that horrible man so full of strength but my guide told me: “Your every resistance is vain. You must fight with this man. Take heart. Enter the combat with confidence. Go forth courageously. I shall be with you. In reward for your victory over him I will give you a shining crown to adorn your brow.” At these words, I took heart and entered into the combat with the mysterious, formidable being. The attack was ferocious but with the help of my guide, who never left my side, I finally overcame the adversary, threw him to the ground and forced him to flee. Then my guide, faithful to his promise, placed a crown of great beauty over me and said, “I will reserve for you a crown even more beautiful if you fight the good fight with the being whom you have just fought. He will continually renew the assault to regain his lost honor. Fight valiantly and do not doubt my aid. Keep your eyes wide open, for that mysterious personage will try to take you by surprise. Do not fear his formidable might, but remember what I have promised you: that I will always be close at hand and I will always help you, so that you will always succeed in conquering him.” St. Pio came to learn that the guide who was at his side was Jesus Christ, but he also realized that together with Jesus, in the battle for his own soul, was his Blessed Mother. Together, they would come to St. Pio to encourage and comfort him along his way.

Why does the Lord allow for some souls to have these special experiences? Because He knows that it is the best way for all of us to come to see and to realize the truths of the spiritual life that are often beyond the visible eye. That is the mission of the saints, to teach all of us, who are called to the same glory and participation in the love of God, the way in which to enter and persevere in this walk of holiness.

St. Louis has done such for us. In his writings, he lays out for us a special form of holiness that he calls “perfect devotion to Mary”. He has experienced in his own life and so now teaches us that the secret to holiness is found in her and through her. He wants us to understand that even though it may be possible to come to the Lord, to live the life of holiness by our “own strength”, nonetheless we will be more sure, more protected, more blessed if we seek the Lord through means of Our Lady. And this for two primary reasons: because of who she is... because of all the splendor that abounds in her heart and overflows from it. And, most importantly, because of the pleasure that we give God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in doing it this way... because each one of the Sacred Persons of the Blessed Trinity have found great pleasure with her and cannot deny their graces and presence in a soul that is totally committed to her.

St. Louis states:
“I have seen many devout souls searching for Jesus in one way or another, and so often when they have worked hard, all they can say is, “Despite our having worked all night, we have caught nothing....” But if we follow the immaculate path of Mary, living the devotion that I teach, we will always work in daylight, we will work in a holy place. There is no darkness in Mary, not even the slightest shadow since there was never any sin in her. She is a holy place, a holy of holies, in which saints are formed and molded.”

Fundamental to our decision to walk in Mary, to our decision to consecrate our lives to her is our understanding of the great joy that God Almighty has found in her. Because of His great love for her and for her virtues, He does not hesitate to work great miracles of grace to those souls which She brings before Him.

We just have to see, for example what occurred in the Wedding at Cana for instance. Or also, the miracle conversion of Ratisbonne, a jew. Or the manner in which the lives of two children were so totally transformed and sanctified. Two children who are now Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco!

The Servant of God, John Paul II states: “Mary is not a particular element of some spiritualities, Mary is the way through which God made man came to the world and through Her the world has to go to Christ. Not to include the Blessed Virgin Mary in our spiritual life means to deny what God Himself has done in history.”

It is in the womb of the Virgin Mother that divinity meets with humanity and it is also in the womb of the Virgin Mother that humanity meets perfectly with divinity. It is in her that we can find fully the way to God, because she is the one who is “full of grace”, who is full of God.

What is the way of holiness our Lady now sets before us?

Having understood both 1)of the difficulty that lays ahead for those who seriously seek a more perfect union with God and 2)that the graces and the preservation in the way of holiness is a gift that will come to us in a more perfect, more sure and more fruitful way to the extent that we are within the Heart of Mary, what we must now try to understand is that specific way which we are to walk to, in fact, obtain holiness through Our Lady, through our consecration to her Immaculate Heart. Having consecrating ourselves to Her, we must understand what She will seek to do in our lives and where she desires to lead us.

St. Louis tell us: “What does this good Mother do when we have presented and consecrated to her our soul and body and all that pertains to them without any exceptions? Just what Rebecca of old did to the little goats Jacob brought her: a) she kills them, that is, makes them die to the life of the old Adam; b) She strips them of their skin, that is, of their natural inclinations, their self-love and self-will and their every attachment to creatures; c) She cleanses them from all stain, impurity and sin. d) She prepares them to God's taste and to his greater glory.”

With these words, St. Louis wants us to understand that our Lady, as a loving Mother, has a plan for each one of our souls, a personal manner to lead us into the salvation and sanctification won for us by Her Son. It is a plan that takes into consideration our needs, our gifts and, most especially, our limitations, and that has as its objective to lead us to God. More than anything else, what she will desire to do for us is to lead us to a more perfect, more faithful, more universal, more pure love of Jesus Christ, her Son, to the point that we will find that our greatest joy will be to fulfill His loving will and to become as much as it is possible, within the vocation we have been given, as He is. Christ is the God who, in obedience to God the Father, desired to become a human person. We are to be the people who, in obedience to God the Father are to desire to become like Christ.

Where will our Lady lead us?

1. The first fruit or effect of our consecration, of our decision to belong to our Lady and to allow Her to be the one to guide us; the first effect She will seek to produce in us is that of filial obedience to God and his will.

But since you have chosen to belong to our Lady, it will not be any form of filial obedience that you should seek; it is the very obedience that characterizes the Heart of our Lady, it is her obedience. Thus it cannot be an obedience that is moved by fear, because our Lady was not moved by fear in obeying God. Nor can it be an obedience that is marked by a sterile mindset of completing a set of rules. And much less, can it be born of an attitude that weighs each step taken to see “how much must be given” and “if it is in accord with my will, with what I want to give”.

Rather it must be an obedience that is motivated first of all, by a profound feeling of gratitude to God, precisely for His allowing us to know and to participate in His will. My goodness! What a grace it is to know the will of God! To know Him and to be able to share in Him! Can we of our own deserve this grace or procure it? No way! It is a grace that God gives to us not for any personal benefit of His own, but for no other reason than to make us better because of it. How then are we not to be deeply grateful for it?

Does not the patient gratefully take the medical prescriptions that have been given to him by the doctor which will assure him restored health? That will make him better? He does only when he is convinced that in fact, it will make him better.

Should not the student take upon himself the requirements that have been laid before him by his professor, corresponding to them gratefully, knowing that in doing so, he will obtain a knowledge which he has not had on his own and which will result in something better for him once his studies are complete? What would happen if this student refuses, if he simply chooses not to see how this necessary and good for him? Will not his education be limited to his response?

This is one of the main characteristics of the obedience of our Lady. She was a women profoundly moved by thanksgiving to God for His unfathomable will in her life and in the life of all those who would be touched by her. So great was her gratitude that she was impelled by the Holy Spirit to sing its greatness: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

St. Francis de Sales, a great doctor of the Church, highly devoted to our Lady, in one of his sermons spoke about the deep effect that gratitude had on the obedience of our Lady. He states that, once our Lady came to understand, at a very, very young age, that she had been blessed with the grace of God in her life, she decided that she would never part from Him. He writes: “In thanksgiving for His grace in her life, Mary dedicated and consecrated herself to God's service so absolutely that from that moment on, the promise she made to the Divine Majesty was irrevocable.” What God had done in her and for her was more than enough reason for her to respond in complete obedience and thanksgiving, giving herself totally to him.

Now, St. Francis makes an interesting note, that would be good to highlight because it will help us to understand better our Lady's obedience and so help us in our own response. St. Francis notes that this attitude of our Lady was present, from a very young age. This means that is was at a moment much earlier than the Annunciation, than the moment of the Incarnation. Who then is our Lady being molded by? Who is fostering this obedience in her at such a tender age? It is her own Son, Jesus Christ. It is God the Son, who, in obedience, has already himself consented to take on our human nature in her womb, and who now desires to fashion her Heart as his own.

What a mystery? The Son is forming the Mother! The One who will receive temporal life from our Lady, is now imparting supernatural life to her. But Mary does not know this yet, not in full. She only responds in faith. She as yet does not know completely the reason nor the effect that this obedience is going to have in her and in the lives of all men. Her obedience is an act of faith and this makes it even more pleasing to God. Obedience at that moment becomes a way of life for her. She does not obey because she knows it all, for in reality, she does not know where her offering of self will take her. But this does not stop her because she knows the love and goodness of the God who is calling her to obey. Thus her obedience is not subject to what that obedience will entail, it is moved from an all-consuming desire to always respond to her Lord.

And what did obedience mean for her? It meant being the Mother of God, it meant conceiving Christ, our Savior, the Redeemer of the world. St. Augustine tells us very clearly that more than the anything else, it was Mary's obedience that brought about the Incarnation of Christ. “Mary conceived Christ in her heart before she conceived him in her womb.” How wonderful, how splendid, how necessary therefore was Mary's obedience!

And this is what our Lady wants to communicate to us, and will be able to communicate to us, if we are faithful to our consecration to Her. She wants to lead us to experience in our lives what she experienced in hers. She tells us: If God has done such good to us, why resist him? Rather, like Her and together with Her, we are to grow in ever-increasing fiats, “yeśs” in our lives.

In the same way now, today, we do not as yet know fully what the will of the Lord will result in. In what manner we will participate in Christ, in his work of salvation and redemption of souls. What it will mean for our own souls and lives... how we too can be called blessed among men, as Mary was. How much God can do with an obedient, grateful heart. It is the only response that will unleash fully the effect that the will of God desires to accomplish in our lives, because it will move us to give ourselves unreservedly, with great generosity. Nothing will be too much.

How much we need to learn from the obedient Heart of our Lady! Obedience is not “a taking away from me”, and thus “a humiliation”! Never.... it is an offering, an opportunity given to me by God to participate in some way in His own greatness! Thus obedience is the response of the heart that has realized that something great has been set before it and that if it responds, it will be so much the better for it.

2. The second fruit or effect of our consecration that our Lady will seek to produce in us is that of openness to self-offering. This may seem similar to obedience, but it is not. Obedience must precede the self-offering which is its response.

In our walk with the Lord, there will necessarily be, for each one of us in accordance to our lives, a need to leave behind the old self and its ways. It is the reality of our fallen human nature. We are all guilty of sin as St. John says: “If we say we have no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves and refusing to admit the truth, but if we acknowledge our sins, then God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and purify us.”

In the ways of the Lord, there will always be a living behind. Israel had to leave behind Egypt in order to enter into the Promise Land, Jacob had to leave behind his goats and to confidently allow his Mother to kill them. We must also leave behind the old self, our sinful inclinations and be willing to allow our Lady, our Mother to put them to death in us.

St. Louis Gonzaga, an Italian religious who died at a very young age, had has his motto of life: “To Die rather than to Sin.” What profound words. What did this young heart realize at such a tender age that could move him to prefer to lose his very life rather than to lose the life of grace in his heart and soul through sin? How profoundly had the words of the Gospel become life in him. Did not Christ tell us: “What then will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life?” St. Louis Gonzaga understood full well the weight of these words.

This is the attitude of self-offering and purification that Our Lady wants to instill in us. It is born of her Immaculate Heart and of her profound understanding of the Holiness of her Son. It is also born of her understanding of the greatness of the dignity of the human person. What stains us, what makes us ugly is sin. Nothing in this world is as disgraceful as voluntary sin. We can find a clear example of this in the vision of hell that our Lady of Fatima granted to the young visionaries.

The saints understood this very well, they were given this grace by our Lady. St. Maximilian Kolbe, a great saint of our Lady, and a Martyr of Charity in the concentration camps of Auschwitz had a motto in life similar to the young St. Louis. In his personal journal, he wrote: “Deliberate mortal or venial sin is to be excluded from the very outset. I will be at peace about the past and with ardor will make up for lost time. I will not omit to correct or destroy anything evil nor omit any good that I could do, increase, or in any manner contribute to. The rule of my life is obedience to the will of God through the Immaculata.”

How in need we all are of the purification of our inclinations to sin, of our old habits and ways which are born of such attitudes as selfishness, greed and attachment to the things and ways of this world, of anger and resentment and of a desire to control.

And so our Lady prompts each one of us towards this purification of the old self and its ways. In its place, our Lady wants to lead us to a deepening in our commitment to a life of virtue. How important is the life of virtue! St. Therese of the Little Flower would often exhort her sisters saying: “Everything is grace!” and yes, everything is grace... but all grace leads to virtue.

You see, grace is the power of God, the very divine life of God, living in us. But as all power, it needs a form from which to act. In us, the action of grace comes about through virtue. To have been created for grace but without the need for virtue, without the need for our response, would mean having been created as robots, as machines who are empowered by an element external to them. To have been created for grace but with our active participation through virtue, is to be incorporated in God. And thus, it means that we are capable of meriting something, however small, on our own, something that can elevate the dignity of our persons.

Our Lady understood well this delicate balance between grace and virtue. She proclaims its mystery in her Song of Praise, when she says: “All generations will call me blessed, because the Almighty has done great things in me.” “Will call me”... this is virtue that has cooperated with grace. Without grace, no good can be done: but without virtue, grace remains ineffective and lays to waste.

And it is here that the human person actually enters into the mysteries of the designs of God, who, though not moved by necessity but by desire and love, wills that man grow and participate in Him, in His very life, through grace and thus freely gives it. Yet, man can refuse Him this benevolence and by doing so, God's action is left to waste. This reality takes on a greater significance when we contemplate the Cross... which is the deepest extent of God's desire to give to man what would ennoble him. Yet, how many refuse this grace!... Our religious community is founded precisely as a response to this lament of God... We do not want the Blood of Christ to be ineffective in our lives and in the lives of those He gives us to minister to. So we seek with all that we are to allow it to be as effective as it can in us, freely and joyfully responding to its inspirations.

Many are the virtues which a child of Our Lady must seek. I exhort each one to read carefully and in the Holy Spirit, both chapters 5 and 6 of St. Matthew ́s gospel where we find the basis of all Christian and human virtue. Here we find the call of Christ to his disciples. Here we hear Him lay before us such radical calls as to “Be perfect as you heavenly Father is perfect.” and also to “Love your enemies”. Here we find revealed to us where true happiness is to be found, in total contrast to what the world tells us: in the Beatitudes.

However, I can not let go by a most specific virtue that is most precious to the Heart of our Lady which I am more than sure she will do all that is possible to instill in the hearts of those who are faithful to her. It is the virtue of humility. Seek this virtue will all your heart because it is the mother and foundation of all other virtues. St. Augustine tells us that in accordance to the height to which God desire to lead a soul, so does he dig down within him the foundation of the virtue of humility. And Christ tells us in his Gospel: “He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” If you are truly seeking for a place to begin your walk in the Lord, seek first the virtue of humility.

3. The third and final effect that we will consider today which our Lady will seek to produce in us is that of charity, true love of God and of His Mother. Here is the heart and the reason of our consecration to our Lady... so that in cooperating with Her, we may be able to love God above all things and others for love of him.... even unto the extreme.

When we consecrate ourselves, we are manifesting our desire to give ourselves not to something, but rather to someone, namely to Jesus Christ. We are doing it as a means to be able to grow ever more so in love of Him who has loved us to the extreme. When we consecrate ourselves to Mary, we are also consecrating ourselves to a person, not to a thing. Thus, our consecration ought to lead us to grow in love for Her. This is a clear sign of the authenticity of our actions. Like God, Mary too, feels the pain of rejection or of indifference, or of simply being used as a means to achieve what we want. Mary is a Mother always. Thus our devotion to her should reflect our love for her. It ought to include several characteristics:

1. It ought to be interior: it is a devotion that flows from our heart and is directed to her heart. It does not seek to flaunt itself nor is it done out of show. Its motivation is love of our Lady.

2. Tender: This is one of the qualities of Our Lady. Whenever you think of Her or see a statue or picture of her, you feel her tenderness. this means that it must be a devotion full of confidence in Her... the confidence of a little child.

3. Holy this means that devotion to Our Lady ought to make us better day after day, year after year. To be holy does not happen in 24 hours. it is a journey of all our lives, but a journey in which we are not alone, we have Her as our Mother and teacher... we have to acquire the virtues of the Heart of the Virgin Mary: 1.Humility; 2.Faith; 3.Obedience; 4.Prayer; 5.Tenderness; 6.Purity; 7.Chastity; 8.Patience; 9. Sacrifice; 10.Wisdom.

4. Constant: We must go to her continually, not just for a few days, or whenever you need something. We are to go to Her when we are in trouble and when we are not in trouble, because she is always there for us.

5. Disinterested: We are close to Our lady because we love Her and not because she can give us things. Does that mean that we should never ask for anything? Quite the contrary. But it means simply that we go to Our Lady not only when we need something, not only because we have wants, but because she is the mother of God, and our own spiritual Mother, and we love her... How would you feel if most of your friends go to you because you can give them something?... you feel used and not loved.... in the same way Our Lady feels.

6. Active: Our devotion to Mary ought to lead us to desire to share with all the glory which we have found. St. Maximilian Kolbe: “The Immaculata is our ideal. We must radiate in the midst of our surrounding, winning souls for her, so that souls might open to her, that she might rule within them all, everywhere in the world, without regard to various races or nationalities. The soul consecrated to the Immaculata will work always wherever it finds another soul... Let us apply ourselves in missionary action to conquer other hearts for her. Let us pray for the coming of her reign. Let us offer our sufferings for this end.”


 

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