[Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort – XVII-XVIII Century AD; born: Montfort-sur-Meu, France/died: Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, France; aged 43, Total consecration to Jesus through Mary]
5. Exterior practices
60. Besides interior practices, which we have just mentioned, this devotion has certain exterior practices which must not be omitted or neglected.
Consecration and its renewal
61. The first is to choose a special feast-day to consecrate ourselves through Mary to Jesus, whose slaves we are making ourselves. This is an occasion for receiving Holy Communion and spending the day in prayer. At least once a year on the same day, we should renew the act of consecration.
Offering of a tribute in submission to the Blessed Virgin
62. The second is to give our Lady every year on that same day some little tribute as a token of our servitude and dependence. This has always been the customary homage paid by slaves to their master. This tribute could consist of an act of self-denial or alms, or a pilgrimage, or a few prayers. St Peter Damian tells us that his brother, Blessed Marino, used to give himself the discipline in public on the same day every year before the altar of our Lady.
This kind of zeal is not required, nor would we counsel it. But what little we give to our Lady we should at least offer with a heart that is humble and grateful.
A Special Celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation
63. The third practice is to celebrate every year with special fervour the feast of the Annunciation of our Lord. This is the distinctive feast of this devotion and was chosen so that we might honour and imitate that dependence which the eternal Word accepted on this day out of love for us.
The Saying of the Little Crown and the Magnificat
64. The fourth practice is to say every day, without the obligation of sin, the prayer entitled “The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin”, which comprises three Our Fathers and twelve Hail Marys, and to say frequently the Magnificat, which is the only hymn composed by our Lady. In the Magnificat we thank God for favouring us in the past, and we beg further blessings from him in the future. One special time when we should not fail to say it is during thanksgiving after Holy Communion. A person so scholarly as Gerson informs us that our Lady herself used to recite it in thanksgiving after Holy Communion.
Image: Charles-Antoine Coypel – ‘The Education of the Virgin (study)’