In writing about what he names the “Perfect Devotion” to Our Lady, St. Louis de Montfort expressed a strong desire that those who undertake its practice might eventually be united to one another in a Confraternity. His wish was fulfilled with the establishment of the Confraternity of Mary, Queen of All Hearts in the year 1899. To support those gathered under the banner of the confraternity in their desire to grow into the fullness of Fr. de Montfort’s spirituality, Father Jean Marie Texier of the Company of Mary prepared a book length manual for its members. Published in French in the year of the Confraternity’s establishment, this manual contains a wealth of practical and spiritual advice for those who desire to strive for an authentic living out of their Act of Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary.Among the treasures to be found in that manual is a manner of praying the Stations of the Cross in union with Our Lady that brings the “I am all Thine and all that I have is Thine” of the Act of Total Consecration into profound dialogue with the various mysteries of Our Lord’s saving Passion. So that this powerful and beautiful resource prepared by Fr. Texier so many years ago might continue to assist the members of the Association of Mary Queen of All Hearts in our present age we have undertaken the work of translating and arranging his Way of the Cross in Union with Mary for use in English. Fr. Texier’s original text has been supplemented by the inclusion, in the appendix, of St. Louis de Montfort’s hymn on the sufferings of Our Lady on Calvary.Adveniat Regnum Mariae!Fr. Hugh Gillespie, SMM
