True Devotion to Mary

 
Transcript for Video

(Slightly abridged and paraphrased for brevity and clarity)

Vincent: This book is so important, that my family has 3 different versions of this book, which is not the case for any other book other than the Bible. That’s how important this book is. This is the ultimate Marian book.

Charles: It is. What’s beautiful about it is that any kind of Marian devotion you can think of, the rosary, the scapular, the miraculous medal, anything like that, fits naturally and normally into the program that St. Louis Marie de Montfort has. You might have some Eastern devotion to the Virgin or something, it doesn’t matter. Slides right in.

Vincent: This book is divided into various segments. The first five chapters are on the truths of Mary. Then there are the interior and exterior practices of Marian devotion. And then there are eight motives for doing the perfect consecration to Jesus through Mary. I want to talk about the total consecration.

The motive that sold me on doing the consecration was the fifth motive. St. Louis states: “This devotion is an easy, short, perfect, and secure way of arriving at union with our Lord in which the perfection of a Christian consists.” What do you think that means?

Charles: Well, it’s easy, short, and perfect for someone of his era when they kept the fasting and abstinence very strictly, when people did penances, etc. It’s a lot harder for us because we don’t do any of that stuff. Most of us just fast and abstain twice a year.

Vincent: He does actually explain each adjective in-depth. As I understand it, he says it’s easy and short because you’re going to get more graces for doing the total consecration. If our audience is anything like me, you kind of sometimes hit plateaus spiritually. You go to confession and say the same stuff over and over again. And it’s frustrating to not overcome it. Well, the consecration is going to help you leap over those hurdles.

Charles: And those hurdles, that’s something many people complain about, that they just confess the same thing over and over again. Now on one level, it’s like saying “I get dirty every day, why should I keep showering?” But nevertheless you should strive to stay clean.

Vincent: Also there’s different levels of cleanliness. There’s going in the mud compared to not going in the mud. You develop clean habits.

Charles: Yeah. If you don’t roll in the mud, you won’t get as dirty. If you don’t hang out in “gentleman’s clubs” you’ll be assailed with lust less.

Vincent: This is why I did the consecration: I’m sick of the hurdles, but there’s still going to be hurdles. There’s no magic involved. It’s a slow process. I did mine, going on two years. It’s 33 days long. It’s a process. You do 33 days of preparation, and it leads up to a Marian feast day. For mine, it culminated on the Immaculate Conception. When did you do yours?

Charles: Mine culminated on August 22 which was the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the traditional calendar. The anniversary of my having done that goes back to 1985.

One of the things about all of these devotions is that they’re like a lifelong friend on the road that will always be there for you, while all other friends drop off.

Vincent: If I could pick the books that a person buys from our store, I would pick True Devotion to Mary and Faustina’s Diary. I love to see when people buy these books because that tells me that these people are on a path. And I know the power that these books have, the profound impact that these books can have on a person’s life.

Charles: And they can. I tell you ladies and gentlemen, despite all the annoyances and difficulties out there in the world, you turn to the writings of St. Louis de Montfort, this is a real Catholic treasure.

Vincent: Absolutely, spiritual classics like these, you have to read slowly, and reread them, because you can’t soak up or absorb everything because there’s so much depth to it. I initially went into these books reading them normally, but then I stopped because I realized I was doing myself a disservice, because they’re so valuable. One chapter a night is like a meditation.

Charles: That’s very true. You have to savor it. You have to take time over it.