Dignare Me Laudare Te, Virgo Sacrata

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Act of Consecration to Our Lady (150th Post)

How appropriate that the 150th post on Dignare Me Laudare Te, Virgo Sacrata is devoted to Our Lady (on this day which is dedicated to her, as it being a Saturday, the feast of the Queenship of Our Lady on the "new" sanctoral calendar, and the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the traditional one). The following is an act of consecration to Our Lady written by my favorite doctor of the Church, St. Francis de Sales. I found it in a reprint of Father Lasance's "My Prayer Book."


Image of Our Lady of Fatima, taken from The Two Hearts Ablaze blog

Act of Consecration
By St. Francis de Sales

"Most Holy Mary, virgin Mother of God, I (full name), most unworthy though I am to be thy servant, yet touched by thy motherly care for me and longing to serve thee, do, in the presence of my guardian angel and all the court of heaven, choose thee this day to be my queen, my advocate, and my mother, and I firmly purpose to serve thee evermore myself and to do what I can that all may render faithful service to thee."

"Therefore, most devoted Mother, through the precious blood thy Son poured out for me, I beg thee, deign to take me among thy clients and receive me as thy servant forever."

"Aid me in my every action, and beg for me the grace never, by word or deed or thought, to be displeasing in thy sight and that of thy most holy Son."

"Think of me, my dearest Mother, and desert me not at the hour of my death. Amen."

Friday, August 14, 2009

Saint Maximilian Kolbe's 'Secret' Weapon


Cover of the January 1922 issue of St. Maximilian's 'The Knight of the Immaculate' periodical, depicting Our Lady 'flanked by two swords impaling the serpents and propaganda of heresy and Masonry' [taken from Fr. Angelo Mary Geiger's Mary Victrix blog]

[The following is excerpted from "Kolbe: Saint of the Immaculata," edited by Brother Francis M. Kalvelage, FI.]

"Maximilian's secret weapon...is a medal of Mary that is really no secret. It just seems though it is, as it isn't being used and propagated as St. Maximilian would have us use it in bringing souls to Christ."

"The Medal of the Immaculate Conception (popularly known as the Miraculous Medal) figured very prominently from the very beginning of the Militia Immaculatae, in St. Maximilian's mind and actions. In his own words, 'Because...conversion and sanctification are divine graces, the Miraculous Medal will be a first class means for attaining our purpose. For that reason it is a preeminent weapons of the Militia; it is the bullet with which a faithful soldier hits the enemy, that is evil [sin] and thus rescues souls.'"

"The story of the miraculous conversion of the [agnostic] Jew, Alphonse Ratisbonne, related in his seminary days, convinced St. Maximilian of the power of Mary Immaculate working through this sacramental....It seems he never left 'the City of the Immaculate' without being well armed with his 'bullets.' Kolbe, a truly apostolic man, would never consciously let an opportunity go by to win a soul the grace of conversion."

"In Kolbe's mind the Medals were even more than a great aid in bringing about conversions. Besides being a proof of the unwavering trust in Our Lady's powerful role in bringing about a change of heart, members of the Militia were to wear the Medal as a sign of their total consecration to Mary, and to recite daily the invocation circling the image of the Immaculate on the medal, 'Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.' To the last sentence he added, 'especially the Masons and the enemies of the Church.'"

"The [M]edal honors Mary in her great prerogative of the Immaculate Conception, and also depicts Mary as the Mediatrix of all graces....On the opposite side we are reminded by the two Hearts, the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that the whole purpose of the Militia Immaculatae which...is to establish, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus throughout the whole world in every soul living and to the end of time- and that 'as soon as possible, as soon as possible!'"