Consecrated in the Consecrated. Sunday, March 23. Lent 2014.

Consecration.

Made holy.

Through Jesus,

the Consecrated One,

we are made holy.

“Jesus is the Consecration of the cosmos to the Father; he is also the acceptance of the Father’s gracious love.”

Though Jesus has the main part

in our Consecration to Him and through Him,

we have a role as well.

“To be one with Him so that in the power of the Spirit all may be made holy, consecrated through Christ to God. The total, loving response of the intellectual creatures to Jesus’ call, ‘Come follow me,’ implements the transformation of all creation to God’s holiness.”

Our unity,

our oneness with Christ

makes way for the transformation.

The transformation of all creation into holiness.

That’s a huge honor.

There is a lot at stake.

Our unity with Jesus,

our answer to His call,

might just begin the largest

and most magnificent

and most life-changing

transformation of all time.

“We enter into the victorious holiness of Christ through Baptism. The baptized person renounces everything that enslaves him to Satan in order to enjoy the freedom of belonging to Jesus Christ. The Christian is God’s chosen, dedicated in a special way to be at His service: ‘the slave of Jesus Christ’. The Christian accepts the Gospel as the rules of life and follows the Lord wheresoever He leads: he will carry his Cross after Him all the days of his life.”

Baptism.

We come back to this sacrament that

St. Louis de Montfort found ever so important.

The sacrament that Montfort considered to be

the driving force of the Christian life,

the foundation,

and the gateway to Heaven.

It is through this sacrament that

we are made holy.

We are consecrated to Christ.

We are called to live in service to Him,

all the days of our lives.

In Baptism,

we put on Christ.

We are made part of God’s family.

“We are consecrated in the Consecrated.”

We have been given this gift of Baptism.

Along with this gift comes some responsibility.

The responsibility of living life as one consecrated to Jesus,

as one who has the potential to lead others to Christ,

even to lead humanity to Christ.

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people claimed by God for His very own to proclaim the triumphs of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You are now the people of God.”

-1 Peter 2:9-10

What will you do with your gift of Baptism today?

This Lenten blog series is based upon St. Louis de Montfort's writings. Unless otherwise noted, all the phrases in quotation marks are taken from the book Jesus Living in Mary.