Do Whatever He Tells You

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We are familiar with this  verse. These words were  addressed to the servants at  the  wedding at Cana  and came from Mary, who, on her part obeyed everything what God told her.  Often we feel that  doing whatever Jesus tells us is not practical.  Do not worry. She will help us in this endeavour.

We hope   our  readers are  familiar with  the idea of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of  the Blessed Virgin. It is all about   helping us do whatever Jesus tells us.  St Louis de Montfort was the pioneer in popularising  this  devotion.  His motto was ‘ To Jesus, through Mary’.  We had  earlier posted  an article titled ‘ Totus Tuus’  describing   the importance of  consecrating our lives to  the Immaculate  Heart of Mary and   mentioning the procedure  lasting 33 days and culminating in  the act of consecration on Day 34.

During her  apparition at Fatima in 1917, the Blessed Virgin promised: “In the end  my Immaculate Heart will triumph”.  This triumph should   happen  through each one  of us, her  children, when we become united with Jesus through Mary. Jesus is our elder brother. We are his brothers and sisters.  If Mary  gave birth  to Jesus, we should also  go through a process of spiritual birth through her  Immaculate Heart so that we can rightfully claim to be  Christ’s siblings.  Nicodemus was  a teacher of Israel, yet he couldn’t understand it  when Jesus said; ‘ Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of  God without being  born of  water and spirit. What is  born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit’ (John 3:5-6). Consecration  is a powerful tool to convert  those who are  born of  the flesh into new creatures born of the Spirit. 

Jesus is the head of the  Church. St Paul reminds us that we  are  members of the  mystical body of  Christ. If it was Mary who gave birth to the head of the  Church, it is natural that  other members of  the mystical body of her son  also should  take birth  through her. In his  final moments, during the  excruciating  pain he endured for us, Jesus didn’t forget to  entrust his disciples (whom  John represented)  to the maternal care of  his mother.

“Woman,  here is your  son” ( John 19:26). It looks strange  that  somebody entrusting his disciples to the care of  his mother just before death. What we  expect normally is that he would have entrusted  his mother to the care of his disciples!  It was  Jesus’ intention  that  each and every  man and woman believing in him should be protected  in the Immaculate Heart of his  mother as it is the surest way to remain in true faith. As for this last generation, to which we belong, it is   all the more important.

With this few  words,  we invite all our readers to  join us  in  preparing themselves for  consecrating their lives  to the Blessed Virgin. We are  presenting the daily prayers  for the next 33 days of preparation. Traditionally, this consecration  is being done  on any of the  feast days of the Blessed Virgin and preparation  started accordingly. For example, if you are planning the consecration on December 8, the feast of  Immaculate Conception, then the preparation should start on November 5.

Consecration to  Mary is  nothing but imitating  Christ. If God sent his only Son to  this world through Mary, there is no doubt that  Mary is the easiest way to reach  Jesus. With  this understanding  let us prepare  for the  next  33 days of which the first  12 days are  to be utilised for casting  out the  spirit of this world from us. Next  21 days are  divided into three weeks each for knowing self, knowing Mary and  finally knowing Jesus respectively. It is our humble request that  nobody   approach  consecration  as a ritual or  as an ordinary spiritual exercise.  In fact we are starting a  spiritual journey on Day 1  with  Mary, progressing in steps,   cultivating in us all those virtues dear to  Mary, and finally  imitating Christ  in everything we do. It should not stop there. In fact day 34 is the real beginning of our  journey into spiritual perfection.  But our comfort  is that  we will  not  be alone in that phase of journey. Our dear mother will hold our  hand while walking. She will cover  us with  her blue mantle while sleeping.  In these days of false  prophets and false teachings, we need  grace, that too in abundance, to  do what  Jesus says.  Mary  will teach us to do what  her Son says.  

May the Blessed Virgin help us  in  this endeavour  with  her powerful intercession.

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