Devotions

Gain new insights into Marian Consecration, learn how key saints and blessed lived it out, and how you can live it out as well.

Beginning November 5 and concluding on our diocesan patronal feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8,
you are invited to once again participate in a Marian Consecration.  Feel free to reuse your copy of one of the hundreds of books and pamphlets that were distributed last year.  More free materials will be made available again this year on a limited basis.  The entrustment of our lives to Jesus through Mary is a life-changing devotion that is traditionally repeated once a year.

Means giving Mary permission to complete her motherly role in our spiritual lives of helping us to great holiness in her Son, Jesus.
•It means saying to Mary: “Mary, I want to be a saint. I know that you also want me to be a saint and that it’s your God-given mission to form me into one. So, Mary, at this moment, on this day, I freely choose to give you my full permission to do your work in me, with your Spouse, the Holy Spirit.”
 

 If you would like to make your experience more interactve, watch the weekly Retreats on FORMED at 
https://watch.formed.org/33-days-to-morning-glory-1
DOWLOAD the full "33 Days to Morning Glory Retreat Companion" for questions and prayers to enhance your journey.

From Fr. Michael Gaitely,

WHY "MORNING GLORY"?  When you first saw this book, you may have wondered, "Why is it called 33 Days to Morning Glory?" The "33 days" part should now be clear - it refers to the days of preparation - but maybe the "morning glory" part isn't so clear. I chose this part of the title because I think it best captures what Marian consecration is all about: A new way of life in Christ. The act of consecrating oneself to Jesus through Mary marks the beginning of a gloriously new day, a new dawn, a brand new morning in one's spiritual journey. It's a fresh start, and it changes everything. 

The first documented consecration to Mary was created by St. Louis de Montfort in the 1600s, True Devotion to Mary.  Fr. Gaitely had struggled to get through de Montfort's book which he describes as a “prayer marathon.”     He hoped to provide a “less daunting experience of spiritual reading and prayerful pondering” for those who “sometimes struggle with saying so many long prayers.” Fr. Gaitley also aimed to modernize the 33-day Marian consecration with the insights of St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Teresa of Calcutta, and St. Pope John Paul II, who all had strong ties to Mary.  He published 33 Days to Morning Glory in 2011 to explain the keys to drawing closer to the Heart of Jesus through the Heart of Mary.

The message of mercy is that God loves us — all of us —
no matter how great our sins.  His mercy is greater than our sins,  we must call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others.   Continue reading.....