For awhile now I've been thinking about writing some short comments about St. Louis de Monfort's prayers for the mysteries of the Rosary, and since I'll be busy at a conference all day and maybe into the evening, I thought it might be a good day to start. I think that most Catholics have probably heard something about St. Louis de Monfort's consecration to the Blessed Mother and the 30 day preparation for this consecration. If you aren't familiar with it, you can probably find a million things on the internet, although a lot of it might be too syrupy for your taste.
I've been through the entire preparation three times and found it very helpful, although before this, I tried and failed twice, and one of those times it upset me so much that I was sitting in the church thinking about throwing the book at the tabernacle. Well, thank goodness I didn't.
There are several other prayers and devotions in the book, True Devotion to Mary, and one thing that has found a permanent place in my prayer is his short prayers that are recited during the Rosary. Some of the prayers ask for rather scary things, or at least it seemed to me early on like I was praying for more than I really wanted, but after years and years of praying them, I can see that they have been answered, very slowly, and they haven't been too much at all.
Tomorrow or the next day I will start talking about them individually, but now I have to run. If you want to look at something beautiful, you might check out the pictures that my friend Sheila posted on her blog today. I particularly like the third one.
AMDG
Were you upset by the preparation or by the fact that you failed?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to explain. I really wanted to make that consecration. I knew that Pope John Paul had made it and thought highly of it. I liked the prayers. But, part of what LdM said sounded almost like it was kind of possession, and at the time I was in a group of people that worried about the devil a lot. So, while I was very drawn to it, I was also very repelled by this part of it. Now, I think it was just a turn of phrase or something that was used at that time and also, it's a translation. But, at some point, I quit worrying about it. I was pretty young at the time--early 30s.
ReplyDeleteAMDG
Do you happen to have the exact turn of phrase? (I admit, I'm interested in issues arising in and from translation.)
ReplyDeleteI'd have to scrounge around for it, and I'm not sure when I'll have time.
ReplyDeleteAMDG