Total Consecration

Preparation for Total Consecration · Contents

Preparation for Total Consecration

according to St. Louis de Montfort

Choosing Your Start Date

To begin, choose the date of a Marian Feast on which to make the consecration. Whichever Feast you choose will determine the date to begin a 33-day period of spiritual preparation, i.e., you follow spiritual exercises for 33 days, and the next day will be the Marian Feast on which you consecrate yourself.

¹ Feb. 21 when February has 29 days. The Feast of the Annunciation is the Feast that St. Louis de Montfort recommends most of all as it is this Feast that commemorates God Himself taking on flesh and, thereby, subjecting even Himself to trust in and dependency on Our Lady.

Read True Devotion First

Recommendation: To read St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary either before beginning the Consecration or in conjunction with it.

How to Prepare for Total Consecration

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort breaks these 33 days into 4 periods. Each period has its own brief readings with which to fill the mind for that day. Readings are taken from Holy Scripture, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas À Kempis, and True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Louis-Marie de Montfort. Each reading should be read slowly and meditatively.

Twelve-Day Preparation Period

The Consecration begins with a 12-day preparation period that consists of emptying oneself of the spirit of the world in penance and mortification. For these 12 days, we pray the Veni Creator, the Ave Maris Stella, the Magnificat, and the Glory Be. After the preparation period follows three weeks, each week having a specific focus.

First Week: Knowledge of Self

The first week focuses on offering up our prayers and devotions for the purpose of coming to understand ourselves and our sins. Humility is the key, and the prayers the Litany of the Holy Ghost, the Litany of Loreto, and the Ave Maris Stella help us gain a more profound humility.

Second Week: Knowledge of the Blessed Virgin

During the second week, we ask the Holy Ghost to help us understand the Blessed Virgin. We pray the Litany of the Holy Ghost, the Litany of Loreto, the Ave Maris Stella, the prayer to Mary by St. Louis-Marie, and five decades of the Holy Rosary each day.

Third Week: Knowledge of Jesus Christ

During the third week, we seek to understand Christ through meditation and the Litany of the Holy Ghost, the Ave Maris Stella, and the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Montfort’s prayer to Jesus, and the prayer O Jesus Living in Mary.

This preparation follows the method of preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary taught by St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673–1716) in his True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin and The Secret of Mary. The order of daily readings used here, drawn from the Gospels, The Imitation of Christ, and St. Louis’s own writings, is the one arranged by the Montfort Fathers and long published by Montfort Publications of Bay Shore, New York, as Preparation for Total Consecration. It has been corrected against the Montfort text and the Douay-Rheims Bible.

Contents

Twelve-Day Preparation Period

Day 1 · Day 2 · Day 3 · Day 4 · Day 5 · Day 6 · Day 7 · Day 8 · Day 9 · Day 10 · Day 11 · Day 12

Prayers for the Twelve-Day Preparation Period

First Week: Knowledge of Self

Day 13 · Day 14 · Day 15 · Day 16 · Day 17 · Day 18 · Day 19

Prayers for the First Week

Second Week: Knowledge of the Blessed Virgin

Day 20 · Day 21 · Day 22 · Day 23 · Day 24 · Day 25 · Day 26

Prayers for the Second Week

Third Week: Knowledge of Jesus Christ

Day 27 · Day 28 · Day 29 · Day 30 · Day 31 · Day 32 · Day 33

Prayers for the Third Week

Day 34 — Day of Consecration

Day 34 — Day of Consecration

After Consecration

After Consecration

Begin: Day 1