JMJ + OBT

True Devotion

God Bless you, Our Lady smile upon, you St. Joseph, St. Louis Marie De Montfort, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Anne and St. Joachim and all the Holy Angels and Saints look upon you with favor, God loves you.

Welcome to the Lay Formation Program of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. My name is Fr. Zachary of the Mother of God, Priest Director of Formation. We welcome you. We thank you for responding to Our Lady’s invitation to be formed into another Christ.

This is the Father’s plan for your life. The Father and Jesus sent forth the Holy Spirit to work with Our Blessed Mother Mary to bring forth Christ in your life and in my life, so that we can be Saints, fulfilling the destiny for which we were created. The Saints of the latter days will hold the crucifix in the right hand and the rosary in the left, and conquer all enemies of the Kingdom of God. We have the victory in Christ under Our Lady’s Mantle, we hold high the banner the Standard of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Today, we come to the culmination and the first year of Formation. We have come to know to our Father, Abba, Daddy, who loves us who has a plan for our lives. Our Lady helps us respond to this plan. We have seen how God chose Our Blessed Mother and worked in the life of Our Blessed Mother. How God had her and us in His mind and in His heart before Creation. Then we discussed the Plan of Communion of the Most Holy Trinity and the Meaning of Life. We have learned how to pray. We have seen ourselves in the Image and Likeness of God created to live the Trinitarian life of God. We came to the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother Mary, and we have seen how she was redeemed in a special way. We recognize we were redeemed in a special way in our Baptism and that we have the Call to Holiness, the Universal Call to Holiness, and we strive to live a life of Virtue.

We came to Our Lady’s Presentation in the Temple. We remember she was born and then presented in the temple, there we enter into the reality that Liturgy is Life. We came to understand the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. The Most Holy Eucharist, that wonderful gift of Jesus Christ, we know is Our Lord body, blood, soul, and divinity; really, truly, and substantially present.

Now we see Our Lady at fifteen years old open to God’s plan at the Annunciation. The angel Gabriel is sent from the Most Holy Trinity to announce the plan of God that the second Person of the Holy Trinity would assume our human nature and the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. When Jesus sees this humility of the handmaid of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, He leaps out of heaven into her womb by the operation of the Holy Spirit. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us.

Today, we will discuss the nature of perfect Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary which is perfect Consecration to Jesus Christ. Your life will be blessed abundantly if you follow through with the call to Consecration to Jesus in Mary. If you become consecrated to Jesus in Mary your life will never be the same. Our Lady promises to those who are consecrated through her to Jesus that she will take care all of their affairs, so that they are free to take care of her affairs. What a wonderful exchange; Our Blessed Mother who is Queen of Heaven and Earth, the Mother of God by God’s choice, she will take care of all of our affairs as a Mother, a Blessed Mother, with love and care and tender affections. This is so that we are free from all our worries and anxieties and cares, the things that distract us from fulfilling this Plan of God. She will take care of all our loved ones, everything, so that we are free to serve God’s will under our Lady’s mantle; what a wonderful exchange.

Before we enter more deeply into the beauty of Consecration, True Devotion to Our Blessed Mother and Consecration to Jesus Christ, we begin with prayer:

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, pray for us.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us look to Scripture, Sacred Scripture, to understand the plan of God in relationship to our Blessed Mother and why we should love Our Lady. Let us go right to the book of Genesis, the first book of Sacred Scripture, Chapter 3; which describes the fall of man, the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve, but also describes for us that we will receive a Savior who will be born of a woman. This is the first Good News it is called the Protoevangelium, Genesis Chapter 3:15. Remember that man’s sin broke the relationship with God and man could no longer call God, “Father.” Yet, our Father promises not to give up on us. Right away He announces the First Good News; it is amazing that it follows right after man falls.

God proclaims Good News to us in Genesis Chapter 3, Verse 15, the Lord God is saying to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, he shall crush your head and you shall bruise his heal.” The Son, Jesus Christ, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary crushes the head of the serpent. Our Blessed Mother gave birth to Christ by being open to the plan of God; it was announced all the way back in Genesis Chapter 3:15.

This Good News that the Savior would be born for us of a woman is also in Isaiah Chapter 7, we know that this woman would be a virgin. The prophecy of the virgin birth of Emmanuel, God with us, is fulfilled in the fullness of time when the God-man, Jesus Christ, is born of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Our Savior comes among us, He is born, cared for by our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph in the Holy Family at Nazareth, He grows in wisdom, age and grace and then He goes to His public ministry.

We see early in His public ministry in St. John’s Gospel Chapter 2, the Wedding Feast at Cana, Jesus performs His first public miracle through Our Lady’s intercession. Our Blessed Mother sees that they have no wine. The young couple will be embarrassed and she does not want anyone to be embarrassed. She wants everybody to live a life giving glory to God and so she intercedes. She goes right to Jesus and through her intercession Jesus performs His first public miracle through Our Lady’s intercession. God will work miracles in our lives. Miracles are necessary in this day and age because we are in a battle if you haven’t noticed. There are two kingdoms but in the end there will be one. We know the end of the story in Revelation; God is victorious. But right now there is a battle and we must choose our sides. We choose to live in the Kingdom of God.

With Christ as our King we have been given a wonderful Queen, Our Blessed Mother. God has a plan, He has chosen to crush the head of the arrogant, proud serpent the devil, our enemy, through the humility of the humble Handmaid of the Lord; that is so beautiful. God could just wipe out the devil with the blink of an eye, but He chooses to do it through a humble handmaid, a little fifteen-year-old girl, who was open to God’s plan. Our Lady is open to the Holy Spirit, loving the Word, loving the Father.

God has a plan for our lives. We have a role, Our Lady is the General in this Army. Listen to her, she is calling you. Our Mother loves you, we have the victory. We need to choose though; choose the Kingdom of God. You see, there is only one of two choices and you do not want to belong to the enemy. Some people will say, “Well, I don’t want to make a choice.” Not to make a choice is to make a choice, and it is to make the wrong choice. You must make affirmative choice for God. The best way to make this choice is to come to Our Lady now and ask your Mother to help you be faithful members of the Kingdom of God. This is why you were created. We have talked about this: come to Our Lady.

Now, we see Our Lady interceding in St. John’s Gospel; we move to St. John’s Gospel Chapter 19: 26-27. Jesus is on the cross. He wins the victory for us objectively, but subjectively we must all respond to the graces He won for us. That means we must give our ‘yes’ and live our Faith in its fullness. Not all those who say, “Lord, Lord, “ will be saved. You can’t just give lip service to this. You cannot just say, “I’m saved,” and then live your own life. No, we live the life of Christ in whom we are Baptized.

Our Lady will teach us how to do this because while Jesus is on the cross, she is at the foot of the cross and her love drew the beloved disciple, St. John who represents all of us. At the foot of the cross, St. John’s Gospel Chapter 19:26-27, Jesus says “Woman behold thy son, and son behold thy Mother.” What a great gift Jesus gives us from the cross. Our Mother, our spiritual Mother; she was given to us as a Mother. We need a Mother. In homes that do not have a mother, you see the consequences. Part of this Lay Formation Program is to help people overcome these consequences.

We want to help people know they are beloved by God and that they have a Mother; in this love they are healed and they are able to fulfill their destiny. This is why you are being raised up! This is not just about head knowledge; it is about living relationships with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Our Lady shares those relationships with us. We are devoted to her. We become consecrated to her, which means we are set apart; we are called; we are chosen, and she will help us know God as our Father. She is the beloved daughter of God the Father and will help us know God as our Father. That is the focus of this first year of formation.

She will also help us know Jesus Christ as only a Mother knows her Son. She will help us know the height, the depth, the length and the breath of God’s love manifested in Jesus Christ. She will help us know that we are Baptized into Jesus and that we are to come to the full measure of the Mature Christ.

She is the Beloved Mother and Disciple of Jesus and she will help us be a disciple: a true disciple, a champion. We go into that in Year Two of Formation: you are all invited.

She will also help us know the Holy Spirit. We talked about how the Holy Spirit came upon her and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Holy Spirit who inspires Sacred Scripture; who assures infallibly Faith and Morals in the Catholic Church through the Holy Father; who gave us Sacred Tradition; who lives in us and animates us and moves us. Our Lady is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit and she will help us know the Holy Spirit as a person, a divine person. That Year Three of this Program of Formation: many more riches are in store for you. Behold thy Mother: become consecrated to Jesus in Mary.

We go Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation and we see the woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet, with a crown of twelve stars around her head. Twelve is the number for Perfect Community: remember the Twelve Tribes of Israel; the Twelve Apostles. In the Book of Revelation we have 12 times 12,000: 144,000 which represents Perfect Community. God desires to save a myriad of people there are countless numbers of people before the throne of God.

We are chosen. I pray that I can be one of those stars around the crown of Our Blessed Mother and I pray that you can be too. To be near Our Blessed Mother and Jesus for all eternity the King and the Queen, what great joy that would be. Those who respond generously are the ones that will be closest to them for all eternity this is the choice you are making. Do you want to be close to Jesus and Mary for all eternity? It’s by doing the will of the Father as Jesus does as Mary does, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make your choice. Choose wisely; choose rightly; choose Mary. She is the easy, sure, perfect and secure way to Jesus Christ. You see in Sacred Scripture, all the way from Genesis to Revelation, Our Blessed Mother and her role. Choose Our Lady to help you know God’s plan for your life and help you live that plan.

Now we move to the nature of perfect Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary or perfect Consecration to Jesus Christ. Simply stated God Himself has chosen Mary as the perfect means for Christians to be entirely devoted to the service of God. Choose to be entirely devoted to the service of God. Mary is the means. See there is an excellence to this Consecration; a true excellence because it is the perfection of God’s Holy will. We recognize that Mary, like us, was created out of nothing; mere dust. All of us are less than an atom compared to the infinite majesty of God.

Our Lady recognized this, remember her first principle virtue is profound humility, it goes with lively faith. Our Lady places herself the last, the least, the lowest. She is the humble handmaid of the Lord, you see that in the Magnificat in St. Luke’s Gospel. But God exalts the humble and knows the proud from a distance. Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity humbles himself and comes to us through Mary. This was God’s perfect will. Jesus could have come to us as a grown adult; God is God. God can do whatever He wants. He chose to come to us through Mary and God wills for us to go to Him through Mary.

It is because of His will that we choose the Blessed Virgin Mary; it is God’s will. What a beautiful will. God can do whatever He wants, and He chose this way. God is the same yesterday, today and forever, He does not change His ways. I do not know what happened fifteen hundred years after Jesus Christ walked this earth and established His Catholic Church. Why some people thought they knew better than Jesus Christ. Let us humble ourselves now, whatever happened, happened. Now we come together under the banner of Jesus Christ, under the mantle of Our Blessed Mother, we are united in that beautiful embrace of love of Jesus and Mary. We know to whom we belong. We serve the Most Holy Trinity and the will of the Trinity. We choose Mary, let our choice be strong and let us never look back. We choose to serve God. The motivations for this perfect Consecration are described in a wonderful work by St. Louis Marie De Montfort entitled True Devotion to Mary. True Devotion not just a sentimental devotion, sentiments are alright, but this is True Devotion, solid in doctrine; solid in the truth; True Devotion.

In Chapter 2, Part 2 of that beautiful inspired work, we find the motives for this Consecration to Jesus through Mary. There are eight motives. See if any of these strike your heart. I pray that they all strike your heart.

The First Motive for Consecration, this devotion, is it devotes us entirely to the service of God. That’s the excellence; the excellence of this Consecration. This is the motive for this perfect Consecration to Jesus of ourselves, to Jesus Christ by the hands of Mary, that’s what we are doing: consecrating ourselves to Jesus Christ perfectly by the hands of Mary. The first motive is that it devotes us entirely to the service of God as Our Blessed Mother is entirely devoted to the service of God. We learn from her how to be entirely devoted. You look at her life, her entire life was poured out for Christ, she never even thought about herself, that is what we talked about with blind obedience, one of her principle virtues.

If you have spent too much time in your life already thinking about yourself and you are tired of it, I know in my life I spent far too long thinking about myself, now is the time to make your choice and when you choose to give yourself entirely to God you will be happy. I am the happiest man on the planet. My life is given to service for others. I learned this from Our Lady.

I tell you I learned this from Our Lady. I was the most arrogant, self-centered, thus-and-thus prior to my reversion back to the Catholic Church. I was baptized, but I went off and thought that I could conquer the world and then get it right with God at the end of my life. That is the way a lot of Catholics think, the way a lot of people think; they presume on God. They think they are going to live forever and then at the eleventh hour cry out and then everything will be alright. Well, not everyone who says, “Lord Lord,” will be saved. Our Lord teaches us that. If you have lived the life of selfishness, I tell you it is very hard at the end to make the change. Make the change now, let us humble ourselves; come to Mary learn to serve God completely.

December 8th 1993, was my reversion, I was knocked off my high horse. I cried out, “God help me!” on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Our Lady interceded for me, I know what I know because I know what I know and I’ll leave it at that. I know the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, that is why my name is Father Zachary of the Mother of God. I belong to her and she has taught me to be a giving person someone who can serve, and I know that was not from me. I know where my will led me, but I know what Our Blessed Mother has done for me and no matter where you are right now, no matter what you have done come to Our Lady. She will teach you as only a mother can, she wants only that Jesus Christ be formed in you. A mother loves to bring forth birth, that is her joy and she wants her children to conduct themselves in a beautiful way. The most beautiful way is the life of Jesus. She will help you come to know Jesus. The first motive for this perfect Consecration to Jesus Christ, True Devotion through Our Blessed Mother Mary, is that it devotes us entirely to the service of God.

The second motive, it makes us imitate the example of Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity and practice humility. You see this devotion reflects the conduct of the Incarnate Wisdom Jesus Christ, who willed to give Himself to men. Not directly, though He might have done so, we talked about that. He came to us through the Blessed Virgin Mary. God Himself made Himself dependent on a human person the Blessed Virgin Mary. We should follow His humility, this is the will of God. You can read Number 140 in True Devotion; I urge you all to read the entire work but go to Number 140 and see how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit chose Our Lady. How the Trinity Himself who is all perfection humbles Himself. You know all of our calls are in God’s humility; Blessed Mother Theresa reminds priests that we are called by God’s humility. God does not need us, but He wills to need us, and you see and you understand that is the theology, the truth behind True Devotion. Because God wills to need us, He needs us. We are not saying that He needs us of His essence. He is perfection. He is God. He did not need to create us. God has no interior or exterior compulsion that’s a truth. God is not OCD. God is free and He wants us to be free.

The third motive for Perfect Consecration to Jesus Christ, True Devotion to Our Blessed Mother is that it obtains for us the good offices of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If you truly know the good offices of the Blessed Virgin Mary you would embrace this gift. Mary gives herself to us who choose to be her slave of love. Now some people will hear that word ‘slave’ and say, “Oh my, what does that mean?” It means we give ourselves totally to God through Mary; a slavery of love; a service of love, we no longer live for ourselves. In Christ we live and move and have our being, and Our Blessed Mother teaches us the freedom of this slavery.

I know it is a word that this society does not understand well because of all the abuses of slavery due to the consequence of Original Sin and due to sin. We are not talking about that type of slavery. We are talking about Holy Slavery. That we love God with all of our heart, soul, might and mind and love are neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. That is what this Devotion helps us to do.

Mary, Our Blessed Mother, purifies our good works, embellishes them and makes them acceptable to her Son. I use this example when I talk about Our Blessed Mother, the relationship I hope you embrace. You know how it is when a child goes out into the yard the field and picks some dandelions and comes in and says, “Mommy, Mommy I picked you some flowers and I have some for Daddy.” The mother does not say to her child, “Those are weeds!” She doesn’t break the spirit of the child. What does she do? She goes and she gets some other flowers to put around these dandelions and some of that baby’s breath, some greenery, and Our Lady puts it together and goes and presents it to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She says, “Look at what your child has given to you!” That is what Our Lady does. We give her our little dandelions and she presents them to God, magnified. She magnifies everything we do in a beautiful way as only a mother can do. Are you longing to have a Mother a true Mother who is devoted to you? Our Lady will be more devoted to you than you are to her in True Devotion; that’s just the way she is. She will teach you how to be truly devoted, praise God. Our Lady is here to help us please God.

The fourth motivation of True Devotion; Perfect Consecration to Jesus Christ in Mary, is procuring God’s greater glory. Have you ever wondered how to procure, how to live for the honor and glory of God? Have you wanted to know how to exalt His majesty and manifest his greatness? Our Lady will teach you: that was the whole of her life.

The fifth motivation is this leads us to Union with our Lord; that is the goal of our life. We are created for union with God. Our Lady is the easy way, the short way, the perfect way, the secure way. Easy, short, perfect and secure, all of this is described in True Devotion to Mary.

The sixth motivation is that it gives greater interior liberty. It is very interesting that when we become slaves of Our Blessed Mother we have greater interior liberty as children of God. The world will no longer determine us. Now I find many people that proclaim to be free are not free. We can take public opinion polls and find to a five percent margin, one way or the other, how people will act, speak, dress, conduct themselves. The world, the media, and unfortunately the enemy is determining us. We are supposed to be free. We are children of God. Our Lady teaches you to have interior freedom through Holy Slavery.

The seventh motivation it procures great blessing for our neighbor. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Do you want to learn how to love your neighbor? Then don’t be like the reluctant who say, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus teaches the parable of the Good Samaritan; everyone is our neighbor, we are all one family. That is good news! We belong to each other. Our Lady will teach us that we are the one family of our Father who have one spiritual Mother, Mary.

Let me say this: it is not like God is up there with Our Blessed Mother Mary in some type of human relationship having children. God is God alone and we have a spiritual Mother. When we come to heaven there will be no more marriage, look at what our Lord teaches in the Gospels. Marriage is a great gift we are going to talk about that in the next year of Formation.

Marriage is a beautiful vocation; man and woman brought together in union. Men and women are able to have intimacy; that intimacy is always to be open to life. This union, this intimacy is a gift reserved for a sacred space always to be open to life because God’s plan is that man and woman in marriage will have children and then the Kingdom of God will have members. When we all go to heaven, God willing, (we don’t presume) there are not going to be any more children born. We will be in heaven full of happiness before God. The Infinite Mystery of who He is will be revealed to us for all eternity, and since He is Infinite Perfection we need all eternity, we will want all eternity to enjoy all this happiness. We must stay close to Our Lady, she is the easy, short, perfect and secure way to heaven. She will bring you right to Jesus who is The Way, the Truth, and the Life. She will bring you to Him even if you stray like I have strayed. Our Lady will come and look after her children.

Let us not be slowed down by absurd objections to who Our Blessed Mother is; open your heart, let us be reasonable people. I am a very reasonable person. I was an attorney-at-law as you know. I am a thinking person. Any thinking person would accept this truth, when they recognize it.

God has given us Mary who is a human person, she is not God. We do not worship Mary, we honor and venerate her, just like we should do with our own parents. Yet, with Our Blessed Mother, it is in a higher way because of her perfect response to God. We honor our parents to follow the Fourth Commandment: honor your father and mother. Jesus fulfills the Commandments, He gave the Commandments. He honors his Mother and He wants us to honor her. Those who dishonor Mary are one step away of dishonoring the Son. It hurts His heart when people dishonor Mary. Think of it in your own family if somebody dishonors your mother doesn’t that hurt you? Don’t you want everybody to honor your mother?

We wish to procure great blessings for our neighbor, and one of the greatest blessings is to help them know Our Lady. Our Lady is going to help them to know God and God’s love for them in this world that does not know love. Receive this love so you can give this love.

The eighth motivation, it is an admirable means of perseverance. We need help to persevere. The journey is long, the journey is difficult. Let me give you a couple of quotes. Listen to what St. Bernard of Clairvaux says regarding this practice of Devotion to Our Blessed Mother, “When Mary holds you up you do not fall, when she protects you need not fear, when she leads you, you do not tire, when she is favorable to you, you arrive at the harbor of safety.” Our Lady will help you on this journey to persevere. In Number 179 of True Devotion it says, “Oh how happy is the man who has given everything to Mary and has entrusted himself to Mary and lost himself in her, in everything and for everything. He belongs all to Mary and Mary belongs all to him.” Take the beloved as your own. Mary is beloved by God. If you love her, your life will be enriched. She loves you right now, she loves you. Even those who offend her, she loves them. Do not be afraid of her love. She calls you right into her heart.

Do not be afraid ever again, run to your Mother. You know what, I will share another little secret with you: I am a Mama’s boy. Now I grew up in Detroit thinking I was a big bad dude, but what I am now proud to say is, “I am a Mama’s boy.”

The strength of God has manifested in my life in a true way because Our Lady teaches me the way of humility and weakness the way of Jesus Christ. I no longer have to be a big bad dude. I don’t want to be a big bad dude and if there are any big bad dudes out there watching this, you can be free too. You do not want to be described as somebody who is bad. You want to be known as somebody who is good. You were created in God’s goodness. Come to Our Mother so that the true you can come forth. I find that most big bad dudes are hiding behind something. How do I know? Because I was there putting up walls, because of the wounds of this world. But Our Lady helps me be healed and come to a wholeness, and now I can just be a child of God. Knowing who I am, knowing that I am loved; that gives me strength beyond any strength in this world. Do you want that? Come to Our Lady, she loves you!

This brings me actually to some of the blessings of those who consecrate themselves to Jesus in Mary who have this relationship with Mary. The relationship of the The Blessed Virgin Mary and her slaves of love:

1. She loves them.
2. She fosters and nurtures them.
3. She conducts and directs them.
4. She defends and protects them.
5. She intercedes for them.

Do you want Our Blessed Mother to love you, foster you, nurture you, conduct and direct you, defend and protect you, intercede for you? I do. Any thinking person would, she offers this to you. God is calling you to come to Mary.

In Chapter 3, Part 2 of this wonderful work of True Devotion we find the wonderful effects of this devotion, there are seven of them:

1. Knowledge and contempt of self. Now many people in the world would say, “What? Am I supposed to contempt myself? I thought I was supposed to love myself.” We are supposed to love ourselves for the love of God and love our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Yet, we should have contempt for that selfishness and sinfulness in us, that egotistical little beast within all of us. Isn’t it time to let that ego be crushed? With children, yes, we build up their ego, we build up their confidence. There is an aspect of that in this Formation, in many aspects of this God confirms us. At the same time, He doesn’t want us to become so proud that we think that we can live a life of self-reliance. If you have been relying on yourself you know where that gets you: nowhere quick. Be free.
2. 2. The second effect of this Devotion is participation in Mary’s Faith. Do you want to participate in Mary’s Faith? Believe me you do. I do not need to say anything more.
3. The third effect is deliverance from scruples, cares, and fears. Are you tired of the scruples, the cares and the fears? Open yourself to Mary.
4. The fourth wonderful effect of this Devotion is great confidence in God and Mary. Confidence in God is the way of the Saints. Our Blessed Mother will teach you to have confidence in God and to be a Disciple of Jesus and Mary. That is the next year of this Lay Formation, to help you really understand what it means to be a Disciple of Jesus and Mary. So you can go all the way to the Cross. You pray the Rosary and you become a Saint of the latter times, these times, now. You need confidence in God.
5. The fifth wonderful effect of this Devotion is the communication of the soul and spirit of Mary to you. The Magnificat, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed,” and all generations call Mary Blessed. You, her children will live a life of Blessedness if you embrace this Devotion. God sees you as a child of Mary when you embrace this Devotion. The enemy will hate you, no doubt you heard about that in the book of Genesis. There will be enmity which means opposition, great opposition, between the offspring of Mary and the offspring of Satan. It boils down to that. We have the victory. We who are the offspring of Mary. Because the fruit of Mary’s womb is Jesus Christ. “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now,” and she does, at the hour of our death.
6. The sixth wonderful effect of this Devotion is transformation of the faithful soul by Mary into the likeness of Jesus Christ; receive the gift be transformed. That is what Formation is all about. We are going from being deformed to reformed, to conformed, to transformed in Jesus Christ. Our Blessed Mother will bring that about in your life, by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Where there are Mary and the Holy Spirit there is Jesus, and that is the will of God.
7. The seventh wonderful effect of this Devotion is the greater glory of God. We are created to give honor and glory to God, exalt his majesty and manifest his greatness. This is actually the purpose of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, everything is ordered to the Most Holy Trinity. Chapter 4, Part 2 of the great work of True Devotion to Mary describes particular practices of this Devotion. Many of them will be unfolded for you during the facilitations. Here we learn how better to “Imitate Mary, Become like Jesus, Live for the Triune God.” We have a wonderful retreat on how to live True Devotion, to learn how to do everything by, through, with, in and for Mary. This is so that we are able to do everything by, through, with, in, and for Jesus to do everything by Mary. For example: to think and do everything by Our Lady’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, which perfectly embraces the will of God, because she is possessed by the will of God. Say to God with Our Lady, “I renounce myself and I belong entirely to thee.” That is to do everything by Mary and through Mary.

Our Lady’s Society has been given to this generation so that we learn to do everything through Mary to Jesus in the Paschal Mystery of Christ. We will talk about that during the Second Year of Formation. This gift is equivalent to the gift given to the Church through Saint Francis in poverty. We have a Spiritual Directory of Discipleship, you will learn about that in Our Lady’s Society. We have a wonderful Trinitarian-Marian Spirituality. It is a relational spirituality where you relate to the persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as Our Lady does; she teaches us. We learn to love Jesus’ Church as Jesus loves the Church. The Church is His love. Love her as He loves Her. Jesus loves the Catholic Church. Jesus loves you all but He wants you to come to the fullness. Jesus loves us all so much that He is not going to leave us where we are. He loves us where we are, at but He is not going to leave us there. He is going to take us into Himself to be transformed in Him. He gives us Our Blessed Mother so we do everything through Her. We do everything by, through, with, in, and for Mary, to do everything by, through, with, in, and for Jesus.

1. First we ask “How would Our Lady do this?” Everything we do in life, “How would Our Lady do this?” You know the acronym ‘WWJD’: “What would Jesus do?” That is a great question, I ask that you all live that. But it also helps to say, ‘WWMD’: “What would Mary do?” How would a human person live the life of God? She does everything with the perfection of Virtues because she is the Model of Virtues. We talked about her Ten Principle Virtues.
2. Second, to do things with Mary means that we live in Her Immaculate Heart. She places herself last, least, and lowest, in every generation in everything. This is so that she can get underneath everybody and lift them up to God, and that is what we are created to do. Do not be afraid to get little. When we become little; we enter Our Lady’s heart.
3. Third, to do things with Our Lady, remember we are doing them with humility. We are the last, least, and lowest. We do everything with surpassing purity.
   • True Devotion is interior. That means our heart and our mind esteem Our Blessed Mother.
   • It is tender, we have confidence in Our Blessed Mother.
   • It is Holy, we live the virtues of Our Blessed Mother.
   • It is constant and disinterested.

This is to do things with Mary, to do things in Mary. Again, live in Her heart, Her heart is a refuge, a garden, a temple, a furnace where all is consumed and transformed in the fires of divine love; enter Her Immaculate Heart. We must enter there to be safe, to receive the gift of the second Pentecost. If there are any Pentecostals out there, please come. Our Lady is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. We love the Holy Spirit, Our Lady will teach you how to truly relate to the Holy Spirit.

You will receive protection, assistance, comfort and you be led to Jesus in her Immaculate Heart. You will be safe from storm and danger especially these terrible hours of purification that are upon us. In Her heart you will be nourished and formed, you will grow, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. You will be formed according to the heart of Jesus, where Jesus wants to live again. Our Lady is forming the new Church in Charity in her heart, it is a Garden where the Father’s design is perfectly realized, it is a Garden where Jesus habitually dwells, it is a Garden where the Holy Spirit is the Gardener and brings you to become holy. You remain in her heart through love, trust, and prayer. Let Our Lady possess you entirely. In her heart you live in oneness with the Trinity just for Himself. We do everything for Our Lady to achieve great things for her honor and for the glory of God, the honor and glory of God, the exultation of His majesty and the manifestation of His greatness. We do everything by, through, with, in, and for Mary.

You will learn more about this as you open yourself to a journey of Total Consecration according Saint Louis Marie De Montfort. There is this little book, “Preparation for Total Consecration” to learn to Consecrate yourself perfectly to Jesus in Mary. It is a beautiful journey, it has four parts during the Lay Formation facilitations, we will help you understand this journey and encourage you to enter this journey of your life. After we complete these facilitations, we have concluded the First Year of Formation. It has been a blessed journey; it has enriched your lives. Now is the time to choose to be Totally Consecrated to Jesus in Mary, to have True Devotion to Our Blessed Mother. Your life will never be the same, thank God. We pray that this journey has been a blessed one for you. You are invited to the Second and Third Years of Formation, we take it all step by step.

1. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has given us the gift of Our Lady and shares their very relationships with Our Lady with those that belong to Our Lady.
2. Jesus the Second Person of the Trinity came to us through Mary and wants us to return to God through Mary.
3. When you Consecrate yourself to Jesus in Mary, Our Lady will take care of all of your affairs so you are free to take care of hers. What a great exchange, a wonderful exchange! It is the best deal I have ever made in my life even though I was an attorney; the best deal.

The challenges of this month are to get to know Our Lady. The enemy will attack you. Remember there is enmity between the enemy, the devil, and the offspring of the enemy, and the offspring of Mary. There is enmity between them and us who belong to Our Lady. We must make the choice for Our Lady. Our choice is firm and we never look back. You are a child of God and a child of Mary. Come to know your Mother. The fruit and the grace of this program is to learn to come to Our Lady who is full of Grace. To live a life full of grace, to live the life of God, Himself, to give honor and glory to God, to exult His majesty and manifest His greatness. Everyone is welcome! Everyone! Come to your Mother, Our Mother. She is calling you, she loves you. I entrust you all to Our Lady. May Almighty God bless you the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

View Facilitation Guide #1 (Week 2)

View Facilitation Guide #2 (Week 3)

View Facilitation Guide #3 (Week 4)

View Facilitation Guide #4 (Week 5)

View Facilitation Guide #5 (Week 6)