Totus Tuus!

Yesterday, we began the 40 days of preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary for families...All done in union with St. Joseph. This is the fruit of our Lenten Mission this year given by Fr. Kevin Barrett from the Apostolate for Family Consecration. The 40 day preparation is according to St. Louis de Montfort's formula and is done with daily meditations by Pope John Paul II.

"Consecration is a way of life that will protect you and your family in these perilous times. It will help you become totally docile to Mary, who is one spirit with her Son, becoming her "consecrated slave", or as we say in the Apostolate for Family Consecration, her "consecrated spiritual child", whom she molds into the image and likeness of her Son."(from: Family Consecration Prayer and Meditation Book Series)

The Apostolate for Family Consecration was founded to help individuals, families, parishes and members of various Church movements to make this consecration and to assist them in faithfully living it. This is done through continuous formation in the truth, using all the resources available through the Apostolate....like Familyland Television Network, podcast's, and the website http://www.familyland.org/.

This is how the Apostolate suggests that you consecrate your entire family:

"It is recommended that you block out a period of time each day to read and prayerfully reflect on the meditations selected for the particular day of the preparation period. Pray and talk to God, His Mother and St. Joseph about what you are reading. Invite the Holy Spirit to guide you, so that you don't rush through the readings and prayers. The objective is not necessarily to completely read all the meditations for each day, but to set aside some time every day for reflective reading of the daily meditations. You can always go back to them later after you have completed your consecration. In fact, you are encouraged to regularly reflect on these readings even after you have made your consecration. Try not to become scrupulous; if you aren't able to finish the daily readings on some of the days, it doesn't mean that you cannot make the consecration or that you need to start over again. Just keep proceeding and do your best; Our Lady understands."

I love how they remind me that we are not perfect...that I might have 7 million things going on around me on any given day....but I'm not to stress out about it. I just need to try to set aside some time for prayer and meditation. I must say also, the readings so far are very good. Sometimes, reading some of JPII's writings can be so intense that I miss the message. Not so this time. The meditations are a brief 2-3 pages....definitely doable!!

Anyway...we started yesterday (March 26) which means that our consecration day will be April 28th which is St. Louis de Montfort's Feast Day!! We simply began with one decade of the Rosary and then read the meditations. Usually, when we do our family Rosary, the kids are hanging from the ceiling fans by the time we're done! I think it was a good move to begin with just one decade. Perhaps as we move along in our preparations....we can do two decades.

Anyway, I didn't mean for this post to be so long...I just was excited to share with you about this new devotion that our family is embarking on. I am sure that I will be sharing more with you as we move along.

If any of you have done this consecration with your family...I'd love to hear your experience of how it has brought you closer to Our Lord.