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Tota pulchra es, Maria,
Et macula originalis non est in te.
Tu gloria Ierusalem,
Tu laetitia Israel,
Tu honorificentia populi nostri,
Tu advocata peccatorum.
O Maria,
O Maria,
Virgo prudentissima,
Mater clementissima,
Ora pro nobis,
Intercede pro nobis ad Dominum Iesum Christum.
For those who are interested in doing so, today (Tuesday) is the time to begin a Novena in preparation for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I know that I’m getting this reminder up rather late at night, but oh well!
Also, for those of you who hadn’t seen this already, the Holy Father has granted a plenary indulgence to those who “participate in a sacred function in honor of the Virgin, or at least least offer open testimony of Marian devotion before an image of Mary Immaculate exposed for public veneration, adding the recitation of the Our Father and of the Creed, and some invocation to the Virgin.”
Isn’t the Feast of the Immaculate Conception a holy day of obligation around the world? So I guess this plenary indulgence is just icing on the cake since we’ll all be in church, at Mass, and presumably spending some time in prayer to Our Immaculate Lady anyway. Of course, some of the members of the Cornell Society for a Good Time will be totally consecrating themselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
I’m a bit trepidatious about this consecration, I don’t know why. I think that it’s a serious promise, this total consecration, and though I see in it nothing but good, I wonder whether I’m taking it seriously enough, whether I’m ready to surrender totally to our Lady. St. Louis de Montfort prays: “Destroy in me all that may displease God; root it up and bring it to nought.”
This reminds me that I’ve been impressed, in thinking about the Sacraments of the Church, for instance, how much can happen in such a short period of time. In an instant, we are baptized or married or ordained, and there is no “undo” button, no going back, and think how much has happened in such a short space of time! In the space of a few minutes, we will have consecrated ourselves to Our Lady, and then we must be her slaves, her obedient vassals ever after. St. Alphonsus de Liguori: “But the saints have understood the value of time still better. According to St. Bernardine of Siena, a moment of time is of as much value as God; because in each moment a man can, by acts of contrition or of love, acquire the grace of God and eternal glory.”
Mater misericordiae, ora pro nobis–
(My thanks to Matthew for the picture with this post.)
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
The command you guys have of Latin is impressive. I always thought I was just as smart as any of you Ivy League types, apparently I was way to cocky!
You haven’t seen any commanding yet, Fidei Defensor! I can copy and paste a little ditty like that to our Lady just as well as the next guy. But if I had written an original piece in her honor, then, then!
It was nice to see the painting from my blog’s homepage with this post. :-)
I share your worries, Iosephus, about not approaching this consecration with sufficient seriousness. I have remembered to do my preparation every day, which pleases me because I wasn’t sure I would be able to manage even that. Still, when I read those words about giving myself wholly and completely to the Blessed Virgin as her perfect slave, I quail a bit, realizing that I do not have enough humility and charity to will such a thing with my entire heart. If I can at least will to will it, will our Blessed Lady accept my feeble efforts?
Do we ever have sufficient awareness of the gravity of the truly important moments in our lives? A great commitment is undertaken in Confirmation, but what do I remember from the day I received that great Sacrament? My face felt hot and my knees felt cold, and in spirit I just felt very, very small and frail as I was marked on the forehead as a Soldier of Christ. That’s about all. Probably others have managed to have more appropriate reactions, and Little Therese made even her weakness into a great strength, but I am not a great saint and I tend rather to resent times of weakness and glory in moments of strength.
What to do about the recognition of one’s own extreme unworthiness, especially when approaching one of these great moments? I worried about this a lot last spring before I was baptized and here the question arises again. All I can think is that, if I am unable to entirely commit myself in my heart, I must do it publicly, understanding that in so doing I am asking our Lady to take possession of everything in my life. Even though a part of me might still want to withhold things from her, nonetheless my permission will have been given. The will to give myself to her is embodied in the act; she will have to play a substantial role in the actual taking.
It isn’t a very impressive ambition, but does it seem to you to be enough to undergo a consecration without sin? I often feel embarassed in my devotions, as if I am asking the Church to exchange my few dirty pennies for warehouses of gold. But what else to do, when the pennies are all that I seem to have?