Explanation of the Prayer of Total Consecration ![]()
by St.Maximilian Kolbe
This act of consecration includes THREE PARTS:
In the INVOCATION we first
say, O Immaculata We turn to her under this
name, because she herself deigned to give herself this name at Lourdes: "the Immaculate Conception." God is immaculate, but God is not
conceived. This name must be dear to
her, because it signifies the first grace she received in the first moment of her
existence. The first gift is the dearest one. This name is ratified by her life, because
she was always unspotted. Hence she was also full of grace and God was always with her,
even to the degree that she became the Mother of the Son of God. Queen of heaven and earth In a family, the loving
parents fulfill the will of the children as much as they are able, insofar as it is not
harmful for them. So much more does God, the Creator and prototype of earthly parents,
desire to fulfill the will of his creatures, insofar as it is not harmful for them, that
is, insofar as it is conformable with his will. She is queen also of earth
because she is the Mother of God himself, but she both desires and has a right to be
freely acknowledged by every heart, be loved as the Queen of every heart, so that through
her that heart might become immaculate, similar to her heart and more worthy of union with
God, with the love of God, with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Refuge of sinners God is merciful, infinitely
merciful, nevertheless just and infinitely just. He cannot bear the least sin and must
demand full satisfaction for it. Our most loving Mother The Immaculata is the mother of our entire supernatural life because she is the Mediatrix of the grace of God, hence our mother in the sphere of grace, in the supernatural sphere. She is a most loving mother, because you do not have any mother so affectionate, so loving, so godlike, so Immaculate, so wholly divine.
In a family, the father is glad at times that the mother stays his punishing hand over the child by her intercession, because justice is satisfied and mercy is shown. Not without cause is justice suspended. Similarly God, in order not to punish us, gives us a spiritual mother, whose intercession he never opposes. Hence the saints claim that Jesus reserved for himself the order of justice, giving to the Immaculata the whole order of his mercy.
In the SECOND PART of the act we say,
We here admit that we are not as she, immaculate, but sinful. What is more none of us can say that he has reached this day without sin, but feels himself guilty of much infidelity. We also say unworthy, because truly between an immaculate being and one soiled by sin there is in some sense an infinite difference. In all truth we acknowledge ourselves unworthy to turn to her, to pray to her, to fall at her feet, in order not to become similar to the proud Lucifer. Hence we also say,
By these words we beg, we
beseech the Immaculata to accept us.
To her we give our whole
being, all the faculties of our soul, and therefore, intellect, memory and will, and all
the faculties of the body - therefore, all the senses and each in particular, our
strength, health or sickness.
In the THIRD PART we pray, Use all that I am and have without reserve wholly to accomplish what was said of you: "She will crush your head," and, "You alone have destroyed all the heresies in the whole world" On the statues and pictures of the Immaculata we always see the serpent at her feet, surrounding the globe of the earth, as she crushes the head of the serpent. Satan, soiled by sin,
endeavors to soil all souls on earth. The words, You alone have destroyed all heresies in the world, are taken from the prayers which the Church orders her priests to say about her. The Church says "heresies" and not the heretics, whom she loves, and because of this love desires to free them from the error of heresy. The Church says "all," without any exception; "alone," since "she" alone suffices. God is hers with all the treasures of grace for the conversion and sanctification of souls. No corner of the earth is excluded in the whole world. In this act of consecration we beg her to use us to destroy the whole serpent coiled about the earth, the serpent representing the various heresies.
All over the world we see unhappy, erring souls, who do not even know their purpose in life. They love all kinds of earthly goods instead of the one good, namely, God. Many, too, are indifferent to the highest love. We desire the "implanting and developing...in a most eminent degree" of the glory of the Immaculata in those souls. We beg her that we may be instruments in her immaculate and most loving hands, in order that she would not allow us to contradict her, that she constrain us, should we not want to listen to her.
The most Sacred Heart of Jesus is the love of God toward men. His kingdom is the reign of love in the hearts of men, which Jesus manifested in the crib, throughout his life, on the cross and in the Eucharist, when he gave his mother as mother to us, and which (love) he desires to enkindle in human hearts. The implanting and developing of the honor of the Immaculata and the conquest of souls for her is the conquest of souls for Jesus' mother, who will carry the kingdom of Jesus into souls. For as far as possible,
The Immaculata is the "Omnipotent Beseecher." Every conversion and sanctification is the work of grace, and she is the Mediatrix of All Graces. During the apparition of the Miraculous Medal, St. Catherine Laboure saw rays streaming from the rings on the fingers of the Immaculata. They represent graces that the Immaculata liberally bestows upon everyone who desires them. Alphonse Ratisbonne speaks similarly about the rays of grace in his vision.
When blessed In the first part of this petition Duns Scotus turns humbly to the Mother
of God and asks that she permit him to praise her. The second part is strong, unconditional, brave. As an instrument in her hand, he asks for strength to overcome the serpent. Who is her enemy? Whatever
is stained, whatever does not lead to God, whatever is not love, whatever comes from the
hellish serpent, he himself is her enemy; hence it includes all our defects, or all our
faults. We ask her to give us strength against him. On the return road of
reaction the being endowed with free will meets with difficulties and oppositions, and God
permits these trials in order to strengthen that being so much the more in its striving
toward him. So that the soul from fear
of the violated justice of God would not lose hope, God sends a personification of his
love, the Spouse of the Spirit of motherly love, the Immaculata, all beautiful, without
stain, though a daughter of men, sister of human beings.
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