True Devotion to Mary: With Preparation for Total Consecration

Book excerpt: A Treatise on the True Devotion on the Blessed Virgin or True Devotion to Mary is considered the greatest book on the Blessed Virgin Mary ever written and has been recommended and practiced by eight Popes. This is the original "scrupulously faithful" translation by Father Frederick William Faber. The great Marian Pope, Blessed Pope John Paul II practiced this Devotion to Mary, in his Letter to the Monfort Fathers he says: "A work destined to become a classic of Marian spirituality was published 160 years ago. St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort wrote the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin at the beginning of the 1700s, but the manuscript remained practically unknown for more than a century. When, almost by chance, it was at last discovered in 1842 and published in 1843, the work was an instant success, proving extraordinarily effective in spreading the "true devotion" to the Most Holy Virgin. "When we praise her, love her, honor her or give anything to her, it is God who is praised, God who is loved, God who is glorified, and it is to God that we give, through Mary and in Mary (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 225)." Included is a supplementary 33-Day Preparation for Total Consecration. Paintings are by Bartolome Esteban Murillo.