Photos: “Chains” of Consecration in Saint Thérèse Hall

Late in the evening on Tuesday, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Resident Assistant Sarah Dufresne (’14) gave a talk to residents of St. Thérèse Hall who were making the consecration to Jesus through Mary, according to the method of St. Louis de Montfort. Titled “Chains,” the talk began by examining some of the metaphorical “chains” that can sometimes bind young women today, such pride, anxiety, or low self-worth. Miss Dufresne encouraged the students to pray for the grace this Advent to be liberated from such chains, and to be bound instead to Jesus.

“The only One we can truly be bound to is Christ Himself,” said Miss Dufresne. “Through Our Lady, by way of St. Louis de Montfort’s consecration, we can become bound more and more to her son. This is the paradox of our faith — when we are most bound to Him, we are most free.”

At the end of the talk, Miss Dufresne presented the residents of St. Thérèse Hall with small zinc linked chains — to be worn as bracelets — which Head Chaplain Rev. Paul Raftery, O.P. had blessed earlier in the day. The idea, she said, came directly from St. Louis de Montfort, who urged the wearing of chains as a “tangible reminder,” as she put it, of “the One to Whom we are indeed supposed to be bound.”