The 7 Effects of Consecration: Part 1. Tuesday, March 25. Lent 2014.

Montfort carefully laid out 7 effects of the consecration.

One-by-one what one is to expected

as a result of true and total consecration

to Jesus through Mary.

The first is stripping of the self.

Montfort believed that in order to exalt Christ,

we need to empty ourselves.

“The first effect of the perfect Consecration is the total stripping of the self of all that is not the Lord’s in order to participate in divine life. It is only in emptiness that we are filled.”

Only once we are empty will we be full.

Only once we rid ourselves of ourselves

do we have room for Christ.

“This knowledge is not just for the sake of understanding our nothingness. The living Consecration demands from the soul more sacrifices for God, rids the soul more of itself and its self love.”

The second effect is participation in Mary’s faith.

Mary has perfect faith.

As a Mother, she intercedes for us.

Part of Her intercession is for us to have faith.

Through Her effective prayers,

we can obtain faith.

Sharing in even a minuscule part of Her total faith

allows us insight into the true meaning of

life,

Jesus,

and gives us the strength to follow Christ.  

This faith is more than just for ourselves though.

“You will use this faith to enlighten those who are in darkness of the shadow of death, to enflame those who are lukewarm and who have need of heated gold charity, to give life to those who are dead in sin, to touch and overthrow…the hearts of marble and the cedars of Lebanon.”

The third is deliverance from scruples, cares, and fear.

This one just sounds peaceful reading it.

Montfort alluded to the fact the our desire to serve God

can appear so overbearing that we lose sight of the true journey.

“Nothing so freezes a soul in its journey to the inner castle as servile fear of God, which manifests itself in the disorder of scrupulosity.”

This servile fear and scrupulosity must be rejected for

God is not only majestic,

He is tender.

“True freedom, then, an effect of living Montfort’s Holy Slavery of Jesus is Mary: the freedom to run into the arms of Infinite Love, to let ourselves be embraced, to accept forgiveness, to accept acceptance.

The barricades of fear, of an exaggerated sense of unworthiness, of refusing to accept that God yearns for us more than we can ever year for Him- all are destroyed through living the consecration.”

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.