Progress

Well, we are a week into Lent, and I feel pretty good about how things are going. I have been praying my daily Rosary, and I am being absolutely BLOWN AWAY by True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis De Montfort! It is absolutely amazing, and I am planning to start the 33 day preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary.

I am a little nervous about it since I know that it is the last thing that Satan wants anyone to do. In my last post, I mentioned that this was my third attempt at reading this book. Well, on the first attempt, I was in high school, and I read St. Louis De Montfort's prediction: "I clearly foresee that raging beasts shall come in fury to tear with their diabolical teeth this little writing and him whom the Holy Ghost has made use of to write it - or at least to smother it in the darkness and silence of a coffer, that it may not appear. They shall even attack and persecute those who read it and carry it out in practice."

This prediction was actually carried out exactly as he said it would be. St. Louis De Montfort died int 1716, and the book remained unknown until 1842 when it was discovered in an old chest of books by a priest.

But anyway, the prediction about readers of the book being persecuted by the devil scared me out of my wits, and I stopped reading it after the first few pages... yep, I am that tough.

It really is true that devil will use anything to accomplish his goals... even the words of a saint can be manipulated into a deterrent.

So now over 10 years later, I am finally engrossed in this amazing book that the Holy Spirit has been leading me to read.

I have learned more in the last week about Mary than I have in my entire life as a Catholic, and I am in awe of our Blessed Mother. She is truly the key to us knowing her Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and she wants nothing more than to lead us closer to Him.

I have gotten half way through the book in a week, and I will be starting the preparation process on March 26th so that the day of consecration falls on April 28th, the feast day of St. Louis De Montfort.

So prayer buddy, if you could pray for perseverance through this process as well, it would be so appreciated! I'm sure it will be a challenging 33 days!

Surprisingly, the prescribed prayers aren't all that time consuming, and they probably take a total of 5 minutes or so, and then as the process goes on, a rosary is added to the end of the prayers. This fits nicely with my Lenten daily rosary that I plan to continue even after the Easter season arrives. However, I'm sure that I will be faced with temptation along the way to deter me from completing the consecration.

For those unfamiliar with this, the consecration itself is also relatively simple. It involves confession, communion, and then the consecration prayer.

If anyone is interested in joining me in the preparation, let me know! Or if anyone has done this before and has any tips for me, I would love to hear them!

St. Louis De Montfort, pray for us!
Blessed Mother, intercede for us!