The Secret of Mary Explained to Children

I have always raised my younger children on a beautiful little book called Leading Little Ones to Mary that teaches to the children in a very simple and childlike presentation, what True Devotion and consecration to Mary is.

What is consecration to Mary? Fr Mark wrote beautifully on this on the feast of St Maxmillian Kolbe. (A well known True Devotion devotee) I would say simply that if Jesus decided that the most perfect way to come to us was through His Blessed Mother, then the most perfect way back to Him is also through her, in perfect imitation of Him. (The image below says it all.)


There is not a great deal out there on True Devotion for children but last year I aquired a copy of a book called The Secret of Mary Explained to Children I happened to come across it today just when consecration for children was deeply on my mind. I have a very dear friend whose family is preparing to consecrate themselves to Our Lady and they are going through the 33 day prepartion. My friend's husband is explaining each day to the children in a way that they can understand. I would like this very much for much children.

I started thumbing through this book for children and was amazed at it's content! I wanted to share one of the fifteen chapters in this book, I have the images of the pages further below. If you click on the image and bring it to full size you should be able to print it up and read with ease.

My question is this, has anyone used this book and could possibly share their experiences? Were they have with it? Was it very effective with children? If you do have something to share, please leave a comment, it would be greatly appreciated.



(click open to read)

(click open to read)

(click open to read)

I hope to use this book with my children this year and God willing early next year (or just after Christmas) start the 33 day preparation for the family so as to consecrate ourselves as a family on the feast of Candlemas. I would like to create something visual each day for the children in this 33 day prepartion..something along the lines that Helen created for her children when she was using Leading Little Ones to Mary.

Editing to add:

Elizabeth from C.A. was very kind to share this encouraging comment:

"My sister-in-law has used both of the books you mentioned and LOVES, LOVES, LOVES them. She started out with "Leading Little Ones to Mary" and then has used "The Secrets of Mary..." with her two older ones.She has told me that her kids grew to adore Mary more than they had prior to the book (The Secrects of Mary..). She recommends it for all families. "A little treasure of our Blessed Mother" is how she described it. "

Our Lady of Guadalupe and True Devotion

Happy, blessed feast day!

Today is the very special feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to which my blog is dedicated to. We started celebrating last night (on the eve of the feast) as dh was going to be working the following afternoon and evening. On the eve, something exciting arrived in the mail, the dvd of the movie, Guadalupe made in 2006. (It is in Spanish but has English subtitles) Here is the trailer:

I get really emotional over many things...my father use to cry over beautiful scenes in movies and as children we would be watching him from the corner of our eye...but it was something beautiful to behold in a man. I'm a chip off the old block and so the incredible scene in this movie where Juan Diego unveils his tilma to the Bishop had me crying (same welling up I always have in the Hollywood version of Our Lady of Fatima, when the sun dances)

This movie incorporates the modern lives of people draw in different ways to Our Lady of Guadalupe, some draw up in coming to terms with a childhood mystery and tragedy, others who are looking at the scientific discoveries attached to the tilma's image, incorporating the reading of the Nican Mopohua (Wikipeda describes the Nican Mopohua in this way:)

"The Nican mopohua which has been described as "A Jewel of Nahuatl literature, whose beauty and depth of thought make it worthy of renown the world over" relies on the beauty of the dialogues between the Holy Virgin and Juan Diego to express the most tender feelings to be found in world literature. Her promise to grant the wishes of the locals who beseech her is prominent, as is her demand for a temple on the very spot. The Nican Mopohua section by Valeriano of Lasso de la Vega's account is related in a poetic style, typical of the most elegant formal classical Nahuatl in its full beauty. The other parts are clearly different and with greater Spanish influence. "

Throughout this modern story are flashbacks of the apprition itself, very enjoyable and moving. We all sat down to watch 'Guadalupe' eating our mexican wraps (which we had again tonight, only with kidney beans for the Friday)

On the feast day itself, we went into the city to the cathedral for Mass and then picked up the image your saw above at the beginning of the post. The children watched the CCC carton of Our Lady of Guadalupe and coloured in images of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Last year's posting for the feast, Under Her Miraculous Starry Mantle, had me recommending my ALL TIME FAVOURITE book Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness and I still do, but this year I have another lovely book to recommend, a new release called, Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady in this book the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe features heavily.

I want to share with you a short exerpt from the book, tying together St Louis de Monfort's consecration and the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

"Consecration

This final step of consecration, or entrustment, involves the gift of self to Our Lady, entrusting all that one has and is into her hands. Entrustment to Our Lady has often been called the "secret of the saints," who recommended handling over to her in a solemn and formal way our gifts and talents, our tasks and responsibilities, and all the details of our daily life.

The story of Guadalupe offers a simple and symbolic representation of the dynamics of Marian consecration. After Juan Diego is told to ask the heavenly apparition for a miraculous sign, Our Lady sends him to the top of Tepeyac hill. She instructs him to collect the Castilian roses taht he will find miraculously growing there despite the winter season. Interestingly, Our Lady tells juan Diego to bring them to her, so that she may carefully arrange the roses in his mantle before he presents them to the bishop in Mexico City.

These roses, given by God and arranged by Our Lady, represent the gifts God has entrusted to each of us, beginning with the gift of life. Our Lady takes these gifts along with the details of our lives and arranges them, directing and caring for them in a way that we would be unable to do on our own. She invites us to allow her to dispose of our talents and the circumstances of every day. As with the roses of Juan Diego, she will prune them, remove their thorns, and arrange them as only she can. This is what allowed Mother Teresa to put herself entirely at Our Lady's disposal, every day.

Mother Teresa allowed Our Lady to prepare and arrange all within and around her, and she entrusted her entire future to her care. This is why, though she faced trials and problems of every kind, Mother Teresa never worried. All was left to Our Lady, the one who had said so tenderly to Juan Diego:

"Listen and keep in your heart, my littlest son: There is nothing for you to fear, let nothing afflict you. Let not your face or your heart be worried. Do not fear this sickness or any other illness. Let nothing worry or afflict you. Am I not here, I who am your mother? Are you not in my shadow, under my protection? Am I not the fountain of your joy? Are you not in the fold of my mantle, in my crossed arms? Is there anything else you need? Don't let anything afflict you or perturb you."

There is need for an interior discipline here. We need to give to Our Lady, repeatedly through the day and over the course of the years, our worries, doubts, pains, problems, and all self-reference. This is the key, the last step that will bring full relationship with her and allow her fully to intervene in our lives, to act on our behalf as she did for Mother Teresa, for Juan Diego, and for many other hidden ones whom history will never know. Without this commitment, without the gift of our willing permission, Mary is not free to act. But once we take even the first halting steps of consecration, Our Lady begins to enter our lives in a perceptible way. His goal is to fashion our soul after the pattern God first established in her own, to see us transformed into a living temple of the Lord, the Ark of the Covenant, that we might carry Christ to the world. This is who Our Lady was. This is who Mother Teresa was. This is who we can be, with her help."

pg 36-38 Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady - Sharing Mother Teresa's Mystical Relationship with Mary. by Joseph Langford, MC

That is powerful. That is simply beautiful. What insight into the apparition in expressing the fullness of True Devotion, the Marian, total consecration.

To love St Anne is to love Our Lady

I had planned to talk about the inseparable connection between St Anne and her Immaculate daughter and then something happened that confirmed the timing of it. Over at 4Real, Melinda asked the question, What has the Blessed Mother...which continued on in the post as....been up to in your life lately? Interestingly enough Melinda mentioned St Anne. That the deepening in the knowledge of and love for her was also giving her a stronger connectedness to her blessed daughter (or that’s how I interpreted it.)

I followed by my own thoughts further down the post and found myself saying with great conviction, that to think of St Anne has to make me think of Our Lady, giving joy to both. And it is so true.

The Good St Anne manual has this to say:

“Veneration of St Anne is closely allied to veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The feast of Mary’s nativity and presentation are in reality feasts of St Anne, as all praises referring to the daughter are directed also to the mother. Mary surpasses all the faithful in veneration, esteem and in tender and filial love for her holy mother. While Anne and Mary lived on earth, the bond of love that united their hearts was most ardent and intimate. Nor has this bond been dissolved in Heaven. Rather, it has been drawn still closer and has become indissoluble for all eternity.”

So these words have been great food for thought, for me as a True Devotee of Mary (St Louis deMontfort) Devotion to St Anne in particular is also another beautiful way to further honour Our Lady. It is within St Anne’s womb that the Immaculate Conception resided. As a true devotee we know it is a Christ centered devotion ultimately since in honouring and imitating Our Lady we are honouring and imitating Our Lord - she is His masterpiece, the one who never refused Him and His graces. Also Our Lord naturally upheld His own commandments to Divine perfection and so no one can outdo His own honour, respect and love He gave to His mother, we only seek to imitate Him. Devotion to St Anne is based on that same principle, to honour St Anne is to honour the daughter and to give her joy, since she loved her mother without fail in any way.

Here is a story from Good St Anne:

“Mary once appeared to one of her clients and asked her to add to her customary Rosary devotion an Our Father and Hail Mary in honor of Mary’s holy mother, St Anne. “Those who honor St Anne,” said Our Lady, “will obtain great aid in every need, especially at the hour of death.” To another person she said: “The Honor you show to my mother is doubly dear and pleasing to me.”

The learned Bollandists relate that a hermit who was especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin was once seized with bitter anguish of spirit. He fled for refuge to the Queen of Heaven. Radiant with splendor, Mary appeared to him and said: “Since you are lovingly devoted to me, I will take away all your grief and sorrow of soul, but I admonish you to venerate and praise my dear mother also, if you desire great graces from me. I am highly pleased with the affection accorded to my beloved mother. Know, too, that my Son, Jesus, has promised to deliver from misfortune all who honor my mother and to assist them in attaining eternal glory. My son, practice this devotion and make it known.”

After speaking these words, Mary vanished, leaving a heavenly perfume in the hermit’s cell. The anchorite faithfully complied with the request of the Virgin Mother. From that time on, to every greeting addressed to the Queen of Heaven, he added the prayer: “And blessed be thy sweet mother, Anne, from whom thou didst assume thy virginal flesh.”

If we wish to give Mary special joy, let us fervently venerate St Anne, for every child is pleased to see her mother honored.”

I would like to finish by saying that so many of the prayers to St Anne, mention Our Lady, it shows their intimate connection to one another, here are a few of them below.

A prayer in Honour of The Blessed Virgin and Saint Anne

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, and may thy grace be with me! Blessed art thou among women, and blessed be St. Anne, thy mother who brought thee forth, O Virgin Mary, all immaculate, who didst give birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Amen.

Novena Prayer to Saint Anne To obtain some special favour

O Glorious St. Anne, filled with compassion for those who invoke thee and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at thy feet and humbly beg of thee to take under thy special protection the present affair which I commend to thee.

(State your petition.)

Be pleased to commend it to thy daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy outcome. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace of one day beholding my God face to face and, and with thee and Mary and all the Saints, of praising and blessing Him for all eternity. Amen.

Good Saint Anne, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, pray to her for us and obtain our request. (three times)
Good Saint Anne, pray for us.
Jesus, Mary, Anne.

Memorare to Saint Anne To obtain some special favour

Remember, O holy mother Saint Anne, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help and sought thy intercession was left unaided, for thou art a most merciful mother and aid all who are in distress. Inspired with this confidence, I take refuge with thee and beseech thee, by thy great prerogative of being the mother of the Queen of Heaven and Grandmother of the Saviour of the world, come to my aid with thy powerful intercession, and obtain from thine Immaculate Daughter this favour (mention it). In honour of the nine months during which thou didst bear the ever-blessed Virgin in thy womb and brought her forth without stain of Original Sin, I now pray nine Hail Mary’s (Ave Marias), which I offer thee through my Guardian Angel. Amen.

Ave Maria (nine times)

Recommendation to Saint Anne

Hail, O illustrious Saint Anne, blessed among women because thou hadst the happiness of bearing in thy womb the holy and immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God. I participate in the joy thou didst experience on giving birth to her and offering her in the Temple to the Eternal Father. I pray thee, good mother, to present me to thy well-beloved Daughter and to her Son, Jesus. Be my protectress and advocate with Jesus and Mary; be my intercessor, my refuge, my consolation. Amen.

The Feast of Penecost and renewal of consecration

Happy Feast Day! It has been a lovely day. Our choir sang at Our Lady of Victories this morning, my voice is finally back after a fortnight of laryngitis (thank goodness I have my fingers for typing!) and we chanted the sequence, Veni Sancte Spiritus which I love, and processed in with Veni Creator Spiritus - all the flowers were red and white and we had a beautiful sermon by a visiting Carmelite priest who lives at 'the' Mount Carmel in Palestine.

Our parish has exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in between our 8am Mass, up until the 10am Polish Mass. It was here that I renewed my consecration to my Blessed Mother using the True Devotion formula. I thought there couldn't be a better place, to express this to my Mother, in front of Our Lord's Real Presence for this is where I am closest to all those who are in the presence of the Beatific Vision.

It had been many, many years since I had renewed my consecration, even though I believed in it and lived it through my daily offering of everything through my Mother's hands, receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion, asking my Mother to be present in my heart to receive her Son with me but looking back I can still see a level of superficiality to my actions.... I know now, that there were many more layers to peel and still far more beyond me, even as I write. (Oh, very much so!) I had been blessed in my late teens to have had this perfect devotion introduced to me by husband, his words during my first preparation still resonate for me to this day...So why so long in my renewal?.....I don't know, but I will tell you what changed things.

Over at 4Real at Hidden Treasure, Helen and Alice had suggested we study together, the True Devotion written by St Louis de Montfort and then share our thoughts and questions on this newly created board dedicated to Our Blessed Mother. We read the book chapter by chapter, reading a few paragraphs per night. Once it was read we started the preparation in late April to have it finish in time for our renewal today - the feast of Pentecost.

This was a godsend for me, it really was like digging for hidden treasure because that is precisely what I found - hidden treasure within the treasure I had always valued. My eyes were literally 'opened' more fully to the understanding of this 'holy slavery' particularly through the eyes of my own motherhood. (I think as a mother it is so easy to understand the beautiful motherhood of Mary.)

Can I share a newly learnt, beautiful gem? Mary's words at the Annunciation, "I am the handmaid of the Lord" here Our Lady is identifying herself as a 'slave' of God - that word handmaid, when it was first written, meant slave, not servant like we might understand that word today. We are only imitating Our Blessed Mother in this 'holy slavery'! We know she couldn't have given a better more perfect reply than that, why do we look for a better one for ourselves? Actually, here at Catholic Culture it is expressed more eloquently:

"As the Fathers never tired of retelling, Eve had ruined us by disobedience. Now, at the beginning of the restoration, all is obedience. Mary looked to the depths of her soul. She, the blessed among women, the one full of grace, the only one conceived immaculate, the Mother of God-what is her reaction? "Behold the handmaid of the Lord!" The word handmaid is but a poor translation of the original Greek word doule. For to us the word handmaid means merely a hired servant. But doule meant a slave girl. Here is an obedient humility to balance the proud disobedience of Eve. Mary had just been raised to the peak of all creation, yet she replies by calling herself a slave girl: "Be it done to me according to thy word." Heaven itself waited in obedience for this obedience. For, as St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, "At the Annunciation, the Virgin was asked to give her consent in the name of the whole human race." The world had been created by the fiat of the Word of God. Now the beginning of the recreation in grace is ushered in by the fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum of the one who calls herself the slave of the Lord."

My dear friends at 4Real had promised to pray for me - and I know that they have! I can't quite explain it but my feelings about my Mother and this devotion are different, it is not the new found knowledge either, it is more than that, it is the movings of grace - grace that they have interceded for on my behalf, I am indebted to these women!

I believe that the True Devotion is the perfect devotion in drawing ourselves closer to Christ, all saints had devotion to their Mother and we see great actions and depth of soul in those have lived the True Devotion, Pope John Paul II is a perfect example, his "Totus Tuus" was a signature of his complete giving of self to Jesus through the Blessed Mother. Here is a beautiful quote of his:

"Totus Tuus. This phrase is not only an expression of piety, or simply an expression of devotion. It is more. During the Second World War, while I was employed as a factory worker, I came to be attracted to Marian devotion. At first, it had seemed to me that I should distance myself a bit from the Marian devotion of my childhood, in order to focus more on Christ. Thanks to Saint Louis of Montfort, I came to understand that true devotion to the Mother of God is actually Christocentric, indeed, it is very profoundly rooted in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, and the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption".

[John Paul II in Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Arnoldo Mondadori Editori, 1994]

I hope to pass this devotion on to my children, if I could do that, I know I have not failed in my motherhood. We read many stories of Our Blessed Mother's great love for us through many of the miraculous and beautiful stories and apparitions throughout the ages, well known ones and lesser known ones, I know these stories will make them realise that this Mother LOVES us! I use children's books but also adult reading material, Joan Carroll Cruz's Miraculous Images of Our Lady is a perfect example of that.

I am such an imperfect mother and so I remind my children often that even when their imperfect mother fails them, they have a perfect mother they can always turn to who will never fail them! Also, I train the children in the very beginnings of True Devotion by the daily use of Leading the Little Ones to Mary - these little things will leave imprints and traces on their hearts that will be with them always and God willing be there for them at the hour of their deaths.