J.M.J. "116. True devotion to our Lady has also several exterior practices. Here are the principal ones:
(1) Enrolling in her confraternities and joining
her sodalities.
(2) Joining religious orders dedicated to her.
(3) Making her privileges known and appreciated.
(4) Giving alms, fasting, performing interior
and exterior acts of self-denial in her honor.
(5) Carrying such signs of devotion to her as
the rosary, the scapular, or a little chain.
(6) Reciting with attention, devotion and
reverence the fifteen* decades of the Rosary in honor of the fifteen principal mysteries
of our Lord, or at least five decades in honor of the Joyful mysteries - the
Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of our Lord, the Purification, the Finding of the
Child Jesus in the temple; or the Sorrowful mysteries: the Agony in the Garden, the
Scourging, the Crowning with thorns, the Carrying of the Cross, and the Crucifixion; or
the Glorious mysteries: The Resurrection of our Lord, the Ascension, the Descent of the
Holy Spirit, the Assumption of our Lady, body and soul, into heaven, the Crowning of Mary
by the Blessed Trinity.
One may also choose any of the following prayers: the Rosary of
six or seven decades in honor of the years our Lady is believed to have spent on earth;
the Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin in honor of her crown of twelve stars or
privileges; the Little Office of our Lady so widely accepted and recited in the Church;
the Little Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, composed in her honor by St. Bonaventure, which
is so heart-warming, and so devotional that you cannot recite it without being moved by
it; the fourteen Our Fathers and Hail Marys in honor of her fourteen joys. There are
various other prayers and hymns of the Church, such as, the hymns of the liturgical
seasons, the Ave Maris Stella, the O Gloriosa Domina; the Magnificat and other prayers
which are found in all prayer-books.
(7) Singing hymns to her or teaching others to
sing them.
(8) Genuflecting or bowing to her each morning
while saying for example sixty or a hundred times, "Hail Mary, Virgin most
faithful", so that through her intercession with God we may faithfully correspond
with his graces throughout the day; and in the evening saying "Hail Mary, Mother of
Mercy", asking her to obtain God's pardon for the sins we have committed during the
day.
(9) Taking charge of her confraternities,
decorating her altars, crowning and adorning her statues.
(10) Carrying her statues or having others carry
them in procession, or keeping a small one on one's person as an effective protection
against the evil one.
(11) Having statues made of her, or her name
engraved and placed on the walls of churches or houses and on the gates and entrances of
towns, churches and houses.
(12) Solemnly giving oneself to her by a special
consecration."
--Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 116.
*Saint Louis Marie wrote this well before Saint John Paul II, on October 16, 2002 in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, proposed the five "Mysteries of Light" or the "Luminous Mysteries": 1. Jesus is baptized by Saint John the Baptist in the Jordan River; 2. Jesus changes water into wine at the Wedding Feast of Cana in Galilee at the behest of His Mother; 3. Jesus preaches the Kingdom of His Father with His Call to Conversion; 4. Jesus is transfigured on the Mount in the presence of His Apostles, Saints Peter, James and John; 5. Jesus institutes the Sacrament of His Body and Blood as the Sacramental Expression of the Paschal Mystery--His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension.
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