My memory is like a sieve so I'm rarely be able to recall a book in my past and what I thought of it, but I'm in my Total Consecration to Mary, to be completed on the 8th and I'm reading True Devotion To Mary. If you have read it and can comment on it I'd be very interested. Although the language is a bit dated I'm finding it so rich and so worth the time spent in it. It stirs my very soul. Lee
Saint Louis Grignion was really the most interesting of saints, a real eccentric, even for a saint, so much so that many folks thought him mad. I would say the jewel in the crown of all his writings is that of being a slave to mary. I took this consecration when I was a child and I think maybe its thanks to this that I didn't wind up in hell. Another thing worth noting about his writings is that they are highly prophetic and I think talk about our present times. He talks about Mary like an angel.
I think being born into the faith is such an advantage, having faithful parents and relatives to guide and encourage is such a blessing. Of course not everyone takes their faith seriously especially in youth, but to recognize the Consecration at a young age is so perceptive, wise beyond years. I just learned of it a few years ago and am only now ready for it. Being a convert you have to scratch and seek your way through the maze to find the path that leads you closest to the flame, I suppose that's true though for any one following Our Lord and His Church.
Lee, I have read St. Louis de Montfort's True Devotion, Consecration to Mary. This is a five week preparation with prayers, dialy meditations, spiritual guidance and at the end the ceremony ( seems like groups, rather then individuals, make this consecration). The book is great, eye opening, and the detail week 2 examination of conscience, by commandments 1 through 10, will make you rethink if you really every had a truely good confession. For example under the 1st commandment: Have you ever committed a sin in a holy place, the church, the graveyard? Have you been guility of great irreverence in Church, by immodest conversation, by an unbecoming way of dressing, or by other gross misconduct? Have you consulted fortune tellers, or seriously made use of superstitious practices, love potions, charms, horse shoes, horoscopes, etc. Read, kept, given, lent or sold dream books, fortunetelling books and the like? This is not a book you read but a book you make a commitment too and then consecrate yourself to the Blessed Virgin Mother. Cecil
Yes Cecil Saint Louis was, above all else and active Apostle of Mary. In a way , I suppose you can kinda regard him as a John the baptist for Mary in these Marian times and his importance cannot be over emphazised. I am going to talk a little more about his message a little more in just a minute. First though. Our Lady asked me to explain a few thigs, not really to the people who are regular members to this board but for visitors who come in to read what is written here. I will do so in two posts, this one here and in another one describing my pilgrimage to Medugorje, although they are coming from different directions they contain a whole message. I am writing this for guests of this forum who are coming in , rather than for the members as most of what I say they are already familiar with. I love Mary and live a very simple life and do not like to do this, but only do so because Mary asks me to. I would rather live a simple life, unknown and quiet, but Mary wants me to push forward a little with these things and so I will. Times draw closer and so I comply, though I would prefer it otherwise. When Mary asked me to start this forum not so long ago she explained that it was not really for these present times but for a future time when poor souls. lost frightened and desperate for the truth would be seeking her message. She explained she would send a few of her faithful children so that they might be able to share in this work, when the times come. As for me I would have been happy enough to have the forum stay little and small and unknown, as in fact Mary was whilst she lived. However the times in which we live, there great urgency and Mary's wishes direct otherwise. Now I recall reading about the French Revolution , on whose ideological underpinnings much of modern western society is built . Voltaire the great ideologue of that revolution was a total atheist . He is about the only unbeliever I know who died defying God even on his deathbed. The reason why he was able to do so was that Satan had a decided to grant him one, he considered Voltaire's message so important. He did not want to throw doubt on Voltaires massage...which was Satans own by having a 'bad ' deathbed scene. Now after the evolution the 'Goddess' reason {atheism} was enthroned in French Catholic Churches in a blasphemous and Satanic attack on the faith, many, many of the faithful died. However in one area of France there was an uprising against these sons of Satan and the deceived. This was in the Vendee were ordinary Catholics rose up in arms and fought heroically almost to the last man, until they were wiped out almost to a man. Why did this area and this area alone hold out whilst this Republicanism spread throughout the world, including to the New World were its greatest Republic was set up?? Because this was the area were Saint Louis and his Missionaries, the De Montforts Fathers operated. They knew the new system was Satanic and they had chosen for Mary. Now I move forward rapidly to the present day in the United States and the present 'values war' that is going on there. Because essentially what happened in the Vendee in France is what is happening there. It is a very hard thing to say but much of our present way of looking at things is based on false premises. It is that the teachings of the French Revolution were right. They were not, they were Satanic. Our Constitution in Ireland is also based on Republican values as indeed is most of the Western world. So we have the values war. However folks just aren't ready to accept this. We have been fed so much propaganda from we were children we cannot dream our societies are so fatally flawed. For if thevery basis on which our societies are built is wrong, where , we wonder do we go from here. But God is about to end it all. The world as we know it is rapidly coming to an end and the new world, after Mary's Triumph will be very,very different. This is the urgency that you see in Saint Louis's message and this is the great urgency that I feel and any true child of Mary feels. When the times come this whole world as you know it now will end, everything you see around you and take for 'normal' will end, everything............ Now I am just posting a message on my pilgrimage to Medugorje and I will be finished.
There are so many positive aspects to Consecrating yourself to Mary that it is hard to know where to start, they are endless. Firstly though I should say true devotion to Mary by a soul will guarantee that that soul will never be lost. Thats no small thing, believe me. Another is that it is the sovereign remedy against Satan. I read of an Irish exorcist in the USA who carried out countless exorcisms and seemed to come out of it really unscathed and he carried them out of with great ease. This is most unusual, there are usually side effects with exorcisms as Satan does not like getting evicted. But anyway he put it down to his devotion to Our Lady. In these present times when : Revelation 12:12 >> "For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time." I have found it immeasurably helpful in confronting the problem of suffering and pain in my life, I just hand everything over to Mary. I would be afraid to leave it in the hands of God alone, I am afraid to suffer but I feel so reassured leaving it in Mary's hands, that I will never be overwhelmed. This is maybe silly but having confidence in Mary gives me great inner peace.
Are you sure? Padraig, Should I take you literally on the comment in bold, or is this a Padraig way of expressing appreciation for God's gift of maternal love through Mary and his desire for us to go to her? I'm all for that! In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
In my family there where ten children, seven boys and three girls. My father was very strict and could be very severe and angry. Anything we ever wanted , we went to our mother for...and you know something of that has always stuck with me, Terry. I think it one of the wonders of the Incarnation that we can meet God in a human being, that He is no longer remote and 'up there' but we meet Him face to face. I think in approaching Mary I have preserved this attitude I had as a child, to approach Jesus through Mary. This is not to say you cannot do otherwise of course, but for me, yes I find God awesome, God loves us more than we can ever know but as when I was a child I tend to approach my Father through my mother, especially in the matter of how much of the Cross I am given to carry. My main reason though is that I went through a long period of intense darkness in prayer for several years, it was as though God has disappeared. I was very arrogant before this happened and had the audacity to even ask God to send me suffering so I could share the Cross a little. However when the suffering came it was so intense it scared me. But what particularly scared me was the fact that I myself had asked for it and it seemed too much to bear. However I found relief in handing over my suffering to Mary and asking her herself to regulate how much I got hit with at the one go. Once you have consecrated yourself to Jesus through Mary, live that consecration. ... Do everything through, with, in and for Mary for the sake of Jesus, This, to cast no aspersions on God, but on myself, for I feared that my own arrogant audacity in asking to bear the Cross had brought me to the pits. But left in the hands of Mary I knew I was safe. I don't know if this sounds childish or child like but so it was and is. Also in having met Mary it gives me the most unshakeable confidence in her, she really is the most extraordinary person.... Another thing about her is that she is very, very powerful where direct attacks from Satan are concerned. It is remarkable. But I am not implying she is more powerful than God in any way, no, but God has handed over to her certain special functions, the foremost to be Our Mother. It is no accident God gve us our earthly mothers, these women taught us to love, Mary does the same and teaches us to love. What could be more wonderful, to love, nurture and protect us.
Similar walk! Padraig, My Dad was a man of deep faith and also a strict disciplinarian. My Mom was my confidant and lifeline in many ways. She died before my conversion experience; with her gone, I was quite the basket case until Jesus rescued me from the pit. It wasn't until a good six years later that I embraced Mary and consecrated my life to her. Many non-Catholics struggle with Mary and her place and role in God's family. This has grieved me very much because it is really so simple. In Genesis 1, God creates man, male and female, in his Divine image and unites them in marriage. In conceiving children, a family is born, reflecting so beautifully, the life of the Trinity. So it is with the Church- God's family; there is the Father, Mother Mary, and all the siblings with Jesus as our eldest Brother. For some silly reason, Protestants keep insisting on a single-parent family! In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
Terry, enjoy reading Protestant prophecy, but I think it fails so greatly because it does no take Mary into account. She is the key to everything. I was talking to a devout Presbyterian friend during the week and asked him if in their Church they had no sense of something enormous coming...he just looked at me blankly and said no. Of course, having said this many Catholics are as bad. I believe when the schism comes the one great sign of those who will be disobedient is that they will have no devotion to Mary. Some gather to the Black Dragon and others to Mary. Two great armies.
Padraig, I do think that most Catholic’s, including ordained, put much stock in private revelations at this time. My impression is that if, as suggested, the 10 day notification is given and the warning occurs, a different light will glow. To be honest, I too am still pondering in my heart and soul. I hold to the fact that since Christ death the ends times are near or are coming. I trust Him -do not be afraid - keep your soul ready. The end of the world occurs every 4 seconds in this world for someone. Cecil
It is true Cecil. that if we lead good, Christian lives we have nothing to fear. Jesus taught us to read the signs of the times while He lived and Mary recently warned at Medugorje on several occasions that we should read them. I have always had a great interest on such things but the Church does not insist we believe them. Nevertheless I have found a number of spiritual gifts from my interest. Before this for instance I had no interest in fasting but now I love it. I was a TV addict and I now I have thrown it out years ago. I have a little rosary group to whcih I belong. ...and so on. This as a direct result of having a devotion to Our Lady of Medugorje. I think in total in has sharpened my taste for the gospel............These are positive things, but there would not be any point in taking an interest in such things if they did not change lives, if we viewed them as a kind of spiritual fireworks.
Padraig, I know what you mean when you say you find God awesome. I have struggled with this but recently I have begun to pray to St Theresa and her childlike relationship to God is helping me big time. I am reading your insights with great interest as I too have an interest in prophecy and really it gives you some hope when one sees the deteriioration of mankind escelating at such a pace. Fasting is still something for me more in my mind than in reality. Sometimes I succeed most times its not so good. What kind of program should we undertake to prepare spritually and otherwise. Do you think that the push to involve the laity more deeply in the running of parishes is a good thing? Mary
Yes Mary it is good and they were inspired by the Holy Spirit but not just for the reasons they believe. Events are moving swiftly and it will be very good if Catholics and as individuals can manage as much as they can on their own, without outside help, which may no longer be available
Today at mass while I watched our priest consecrate the bread and wine I was praying a prayer of thanksgiving for all our priests and the Holy Eucharist they bring to us, we are blessed beyond measure... I was aware that it was temporary.
