Consecration to the Immaculata - Preparation Day 5
Day Five
God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you
At times, in a family, the father rejoices when the
mother, by her own intervention, holds his hand, which would
punish the child, because in that case justice is met and
mercy manifested. It is not without reason, in fact, that justice
is suspended. In the same way God, not to punish us,
gives us a spiritual mother, to whose intercession He is never
opposed. That is why the saints have said that Jesus reserved
the order of justice to himself, entrusting the entire order of
mercy to the Immaculata.
Explanation:
We know the title “Mother of Mercy”. The Immaculata
is the mother of the Saviour whose entire work of salvation
is a never ending stream of mercy. However, St. Maximilian
takes it to a higher level by referring to St. Bernard who
links the mystery of Mary particularly to divine mercy.
God is just because He is holy. The infinite holiness of God
demands that all darkness must give way to eternal light.
Sin cannot exist before God. Good must be rewarded, evil
must be punished. Justice demands that debt be paid to
the last penny. However, the mercy of God consists in not
33
sparing His own Son, but in sacrificing Him for all of us
in order to fulfil the demands of justice. We have sinned
— Christ pays our debt. We commit the crime — Christ
takes our punishment upon Himself. Now Christ has
made a gift of this His most beautiful privilege, the profoundest
expression of His love for us, to His Mother as the
most precious jewel in her crown. Thus Mary may be all
mercy. She leaves judgement and the demands of sanctity
and justice entirely up to her Son. She herself is all merciful
in everything, nurturing the miserable, grubby wretch
that we all are as a mother does.
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: Why did god intend such an unusual role for
Mary during the end times?, p.227
**********
WHY DID GOD INTEND SUCH AN UNUSUAL ROLE
FOR MARY DURING THE END TIMES?
“Through Mary the redemption of the world began, and through Mary
it must be completed.” With these words St. Louis-Marie de Montfort
explains why Mary will appear especially at the second coming of
Christ — in the end times. He lists seven reasons why the Virgin Mary
must be known in a special way at Jesus’ return and why she must be
revealed through the Holy Ghost:
God wishes therefore to reveal Mary, His masterpiece, and
make her more known in these latter times:
— Because she kept herself hidden in this world and in
her great humility considered herself lower than dust, having
obtained from God, His apostles and evangelists the favour of
not being made known.
228
— Because, as Mary is not only God’s masterpiece of glory
in heaven, but also His masterpiece of grace on earth, He
wishes to be glorified and praised because of her by those
living upon earth.
— Since she is the dawn which precedes and discloses the
Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ, she must be known and acknowledged
so that Jesus may be known and acknowledged.
— As she was the way by which Jesus first came to us, she
will again be the way by which He will come to us the second
time though not in the same manner.
— Since she is the sure means, the direct and immaculate
way to Jesus and the perfect guide to Him, it is through her
that souls who are to shine forth in sanctity, must find Him.
He who finds Mary finds life [Proverbs 8:35], that is, Jesus
Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life. But no one
can find Mary who does not look for her. No one can look
for her who does not know her, for no one seeks or desires
something unknown.
Mary then must be better known than ever for the deeper
understanding and the greater glory of the Blessed Trinity.
— In these latter times Mary must shine forth more than
ever in mercy, power and grace: in mercy, to bring back and
welcome lovingly the poor sinners and wanderers who are
to be converted and return to the Catholic Church; in power,
to combat the enemies of God who will rise up menacingly
to seduce and crush by promises and threats all those who
oppose them; finally, she must shine forth in grace to inspire
and support the valiant soldiers and loyal servants of Jesus
Christ who are fighting for His cause.
229
— Lastly, Mary must become as terrible as an army in
battle array [Canticle of Canticles 6:3] to the devil and
his followers, especially in these latter times. For Satan,
knowing that he has little time — even less than ever — to
destroy souls, intensifies his efforts and his onslaughts every
day. He will not hesitate to stir up savage persecutions
and set treacherous snares for Mary’s faithful servants and
children whom he finds more difficult to overcome than
others.19
But why should Mary, of all people (and not Christ directly),
conquer Satan? Because the devil
fears her not only more than angels and men but in
a certain sense more than God Himself. This does not mean
that the anger, hatred and power of God are not infinitely
greater than the Blessed Virgin’s, since her attributes are
limited. It simply means that Satan, being so proud, suffers
infinitely more in being vanquished and punished by a lowly
and humble servant of God, for her humility humiliates
him more than the power of God. Moreover, God has given
Mary such great power over the evil spirits that, as they have
often been forced unwillingly to admit through the lips of
possessed persons, they fear one of her pleadings for a soul
more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats
more than all their other torments.20
19 St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, paragraph 50.
20 Ibid., paragraph 52.
230
WHAT IS MARY’S ROLE IN THE END TIMES?
It consists of the decisive battle between her, the “great sign in
heaven”, and the dragon (Apocalypse 12). This is already indicated by
the fact that, the more godlessness spreads throughout the world, the
more she reveals herself and comes to the aid of believers. While on earth
the ideals of Freemasonry and of all the other enemies of God are triumphing,
devotion to the Mother of God is also spreading and becoming the
cause of the greatest flowering of the Catholic missions in the history of
the Church. The Apocalypse describes that battle in the following words:
And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed
with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head
a crown of twelve stars (12:1). … And there was seen another
sign in heaven. And behold a great red dragon (12:3)….
And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to
be delivered: that, when she should be delivered, he might
devour her son (12:4). … And when the dragon saw that
he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman who
brought forth the man child. And there were given to the
woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the
desert, unto her place, where she is nourished for a time and
times and half a. time, from the face of the serpent (12:13–14).
… And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to
make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments
of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (12:17).
As we have already mentioned, St. Louis de Montfort views this
battle as the fulfillment of all world history from the very beginning
of mankind:
231
It is chiefly in reference to these last wicked persecutions
of the devil, daily increasing until the advent of the reign
of anti-Christ, that we should understand that first and
well-known prophecy and curse of God uttered against the
serpent in the garden of paradise…. “I will place enmities
between you and the woman, between your race and her
race; she will crush your head and you will lie in wait for her
heel” (Gen 3:15).
God has established only one enmity — but it is an
irreconcilable one — which will last and even go on increasing
to the end of time. That enmity is between Mary, His
worthy Mother, and the devil, between the children and the
servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and followers
of Lucifer.
St. Louis de Montfort goes on to quote the famous passage from
St. Irenæus:
What Lucifer lost by pride Mary won by humility. What
Eve ruined and lost by disobedience Mary saved by obedience.
By obeying the serpent, Eve ruined her children as well as
herself and delivered them up to him. Mary, by her perfect
fidelity to God, saved her children with herself and consecrated
them to His divine majesty.21
Sister Lucia of Fatima, in a conversation with Fr. Fuentes (1957),
describes these end times in the following words:
21 Ibid., paragraphs 51–52; 53.
232
Father, the devil is arming himself for the decisive battle
against the Virgin Mary. And because he knows what offends
God the most and what it takes to win the greatest number
of souls, he does everything that he can to win souls that are
consecrated to God, for thus he gains access to a wide field of
souls, so as to conquer them that much more easily…. Father,
the Mother of God has not told me directly that we are in the
end times, but still she has given me to understand that this is
the case. There are three reasons for this:
First, because she told me that the devil is preparing for the
decisive battle against the Mother of God: the decisive battle,
however, is the final battle, in which it becomes clear which
side will have the victory and which side will be defeated.
Second, because she told my cousins and me that God
is now giving the world the two last means of salvation: the
Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But
if these are the last means of salvation, that implies that there
will be no others.
Third, because it is in keeping with the plans of Divine
Providence that, if God is going to punish the world, all
other usual methods of conversion must first be exhausted.
When He saw, however, that the world is neglecting all these
methods, He offered it the final means of salvation, namely
His Most Holy Mother. But if we now despise and reject this
final means of salvation, too, then there is no more forgiveness
for us, because we have then committed the sin that
the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Ghost.22
22 O. J. M. Alonso, C.M.F., La Verdad sobre el Secreto do Fatima, Centro Mariano,
Madrid 1976, pp. 103–106.
233
Maximilian Kolbe recognizes no other means in these times:
If the Immaculata wants something from us, then there
is no doubt that we will safely accomplish it! With her help
we are capable of anything, we can convert the whole world.
Of ourselves we can do nothing at all, but with the help of the
Immaculata we will convert the whole world, I repeat: we will
place the whole world at her feet! Let us only be utterly and
entirely her property.23
23 Conference, December 31, 1938.
God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you
At times, in a family, the father rejoices when the
mother, by her own intervention, holds his hand, which would
punish the child, because in that case justice is met and
mercy manifested. It is not without reason, in fact, that justice
is suspended. In the same way God, not to punish us,
gives us a spiritual mother, to whose intercession He is never
opposed. That is why the saints have said that Jesus reserved
the order of justice to himself, entrusting the entire order of
mercy to the Immaculata.
Explanation:
We know the title “Mother of Mercy”. The Immaculata
is the mother of the Saviour whose entire work of salvation
is a never ending stream of mercy. However, St. Maximilian
takes it to a higher level by referring to St. Bernard who
links the mystery of Mary particularly to divine mercy.
God is just because He is holy. The infinite holiness of God
demands that all darkness must give way to eternal light.
Sin cannot exist before God. Good must be rewarded, evil
must be punished. Justice demands that debt be paid to
the last penny. However, the mercy of God consists in not
33
sparing His own Son, but in sacrificing Him for all of us
in order to fulfil the demands of justice. We have sinned
— Christ pays our debt. We commit the crime — Christ
takes our punishment upon Himself. Now Christ has
made a gift of this His most beautiful privilege, the profoundest
expression of His love for us, to His Mother as the
most precious jewel in her crown. Thus Mary may be all
mercy. She leaves judgement and the demands of sanctity
and justice entirely up to her Son. She herself is all merciful
in everything, nurturing the miserable, grubby wretch
that we all are as a mother does.
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: Why did god intend such an unusual role for
Mary during the end times?, p.227
**********
WHY DID GOD INTEND SUCH AN UNUSUAL ROLE
FOR MARY DURING THE END TIMES?
“Through Mary the redemption of the world began, and through Mary
it must be completed.” With these words St. Louis-Marie de Montfort
explains why Mary will appear especially at the second coming of
Christ — in the end times. He lists seven reasons why the Virgin Mary
must be known in a special way at Jesus’ return and why she must be
revealed through the Holy Ghost:
God wishes therefore to reveal Mary, His masterpiece, and
make her more known in these latter times:
— Because she kept herself hidden in this world and in
her great humility considered herself lower than dust, having
obtained from God, His apostles and evangelists the favour of
not being made known.
228
— Because, as Mary is not only God’s masterpiece of glory
in heaven, but also His masterpiece of grace on earth, He
wishes to be glorified and praised because of her by those
living upon earth.
— Since she is the dawn which precedes and discloses the
Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ, she must be known and acknowledged
so that Jesus may be known and acknowledged.
— As she was the way by which Jesus first came to us, she
will again be the way by which He will come to us the second
time though not in the same manner.
— Since she is the sure means, the direct and immaculate
way to Jesus and the perfect guide to Him, it is through her
that souls who are to shine forth in sanctity, must find Him.
He who finds Mary finds life [Proverbs 8:35], that is, Jesus
Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life. But no one
can find Mary who does not look for her. No one can look
for her who does not know her, for no one seeks or desires
something unknown.
Mary then must be better known than ever for the deeper
understanding and the greater glory of the Blessed Trinity.
— In these latter times Mary must shine forth more than
ever in mercy, power and grace: in mercy, to bring back and
welcome lovingly the poor sinners and wanderers who are
to be converted and return to the Catholic Church; in power,
to combat the enemies of God who will rise up menacingly
to seduce and crush by promises and threats all those who
oppose them; finally, she must shine forth in grace to inspire
and support the valiant soldiers and loyal servants of Jesus
Christ who are fighting for His cause.
229
— Lastly, Mary must become as terrible as an army in
battle array [Canticle of Canticles 6:3] to the devil and
his followers, especially in these latter times. For Satan,
knowing that he has little time — even less than ever — to
destroy souls, intensifies his efforts and his onslaughts every
day. He will not hesitate to stir up savage persecutions
and set treacherous snares for Mary’s faithful servants and
children whom he finds more difficult to overcome than
others.19
But why should Mary, of all people (and not Christ directly),
conquer Satan? Because the devil
fears her not only more than angels and men but in
a certain sense more than God Himself. This does not mean
that the anger, hatred and power of God are not infinitely
greater than the Blessed Virgin’s, since her attributes are
limited. It simply means that Satan, being so proud, suffers
infinitely more in being vanquished and punished by a lowly
and humble servant of God, for her humility humiliates
him more than the power of God. Moreover, God has given
Mary such great power over the evil spirits that, as they have
often been forced unwillingly to admit through the lips of
possessed persons, they fear one of her pleadings for a soul
more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats
more than all their other torments.20
19 St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, paragraph 50.
20 Ibid., paragraph 52.
230
WHAT IS MARY’S ROLE IN THE END TIMES?
It consists of the decisive battle between her, the “great sign in
heaven”, and the dragon (Apocalypse 12). This is already indicated by
the fact that, the more godlessness spreads throughout the world, the
more she reveals herself and comes to the aid of believers. While on earth
the ideals of Freemasonry and of all the other enemies of God are triumphing,
devotion to the Mother of God is also spreading and becoming the
cause of the greatest flowering of the Catholic missions in the history of
the Church. The Apocalypse describes that battle in the following words:
And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed
with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head
a crown of twelve stars (12:1). … And there was seen another
sign in heaven. And behold a great red dragon (12:3)….
And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to
be delivered: that, when she should be delivered, he might
devour her son (12:4). … And when the dragon saw that
he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman who
brought forth the man child. And there were given to the
woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the
desert, unto her place, where she is nourished for a time and
times and half a. time, from the face of the serpent (12:13–14).
… And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to
make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments
of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (12:17).
As we have already mentioned, St. Louis de Montfort views this
battle as the fulfillment of all world history from the very beginning
of mankind:
231
It is chiefly in reference to these last wicked persecutions
of the devil, daily increasing until the advent of the reign
of anti-Christ, that we should understand that first and
well-known prophecy and curse of God uttered against the
serpent in the garden of paradise…. “I will place enmities
between you and the woman, between your race and her
race; she will crush your head and you will lie in wait for her
heel” (Gen 3:15).
God has established only one enmity — but it is an
irreconcilable one — which will last and even go on increasing
to the end of time. That enmity is between Mary, His
worthy Mother, and the devil, between the children and the
servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and followers
of Lucifer.
St. Louis de Montfort goes on to quote the famous passage from
St. Irenæus:
What Lucifer lost by pride Mary won by humility. What
Eve ruined and lost by disobedience Mary saved by obedience.
By obeying the serpent, Eve ruined her children as well as
herself and delivered them up to him. Mary, by her perfect
fidelity to God, saved her children with herself and consecrated
them to His divine majesty.21
Sister Lucia of Fatima, in a conversation with Fr. Fuentes (1957),
describes these end times in the following words:
21 Ibid., paragraphs 51–52; 53.
232
Father, the devil is arming himself for the decisive battle
against the Virgin Mary. And because he knows what offends
God the most and what it takes to win the greatest number
of souls, he does everything that he can to win souls that are
consecrated to God, for thus he gains access to a wide field of
souls, so as to conquer them that much more easily…. Father,
the Mother of God has not told me directly that we are in the
end times, but still she has given me to understand that this is
the case. There are three reasons for this:
First, because she told me that the devil is preparing for the
decisive battle against the Mother of God: the decisive battle,
however, is the final battle, in which it becomes clear which
side will have the victory and which side will be defeated.
Second, because she told my cousins and me that God
is now giving the world the two last means of salvation: the
Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But
if these are the last means of salvation, that implies that there
will be no others.
Third, because it is in keeping with the plans of Divine
Providence that, if God is going to punish the world, all
other usual methods of conversion must first be exhausted.
When He saw, however, that the world is neglecting all these
methods, He offered it the final means of salvation, namely
His Most Holy Mother. But if we now despise and reject this
final means of salvation, too, then there is no more forgiveness
for us, because we have then committed the sin that
the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Ghost.22
22 O. J. M. Alonso, C.M.F., La Verdad sobre el Secreto do Fatima, Centro Mariano,
Madrid 1976, pp. 103–106.
233
Maximilian Kolbe recognizes no other means in these times:
If the Immaculata wants something from us, then there
is no doubt that we will safely accomplish it! With her help
we are capable of anything, we can convert the whole world.
Of ourselves we can do nothing at all, but with the help of the
Immaculata we will convert the whole world, I repeat: we will
place the whole world at her feet! Let us only be utterly and
entirely her property.23
23 Conference, December 31, 1938.