I have wanted to write about Marian Consecration for a long time, but I have never been really sure how to talk about it. It can be a little confusing, and is easily misunderstood. Since this coming Saturday is the feast of our Lady of Sorrows, now just seemed a good time.
Let me start this way: It was not the most important day of my life. There are already too many of those, my first Easter, marriage, birth of children, ordination, etc. However, if I am going to be perfectly honest, the day I consecrated myself to Mary is every bit as important to me as any of those days listed above. It is not a day that anyone else would remember, but it is a day I will never forget.
I was kind of suckered into doing it. My bishop decided to consecrate the entire diocese to the Blessed Mother in union with the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Fatima, which I thought was an awesome idea. Along with this, he worked out a program for all the parishes in the diocese to have sessions to prepare us to consecrate ourselves to her as individuals too. Being a new deacon, and eager to follow my bishop, I said of course I will be there.
Truth is, I had already read St. Montfort, St. Kolbe and so much St. JPII that my head would spin. I already had my head well wrapped around this consecration thing, I just had never actually done it. So I did what I was supposed to do and jumped right in with my whole parish.
It was a little boring. I won’t say I was disappointed, but I didn’t exactly feel like I was going to skydiving classes, you hear me? It was primarily the older ladies of the parish, whom I love, don’t get me wrong, but who also like to talk quite a bit more than I do. And lets be honest, that’s really saying something. Anyways, I stick to my promises, and I did absolutely everything faithfully, said every prayer, read every book, watched every video for a month. Sometimes it was interesting, sometimes it wasn’t.
I couldn’t make it to the gathering of everyone, I had to work, so my wife and I gave ourselves over to the Mother of God together on October 13th last year. It was 2:00pm in the afternoon.
I was simply not prepared for the grace that would flow into me from that moment on. Even now, almost a year later, I am still primarily powered by the grace of our Mother’s gift. As I write you now, I feel as if I am on a mission, a tool in her most sacred hands to do everything in my power to send souls to her Son. I do not know if anyone else had the experience I had, I’m sure that everyone had something different, but I know for me, this was as much as a watershed moment as any I have ever had.
I am proud to be a husband, a father, and a son. I’m proud of my service to God’s people. I’m proud of my work, and I hope it is pleasing to God.
But more than anything, I am proud of my baptism into the family of God, to be united to Christ in his Church, and very, very proud to be my Mother’s son. I want nothing more in this life than to make them proud too.
“So what is this whole Marian Consecration thing,” I bet you are asking. Well, let me put it as simply as I can, and point you to some resources to help.
Marian Consecration is primarily giving your life to Jesus through Mary as completely as you can in a definitive act. It is choosing a single moment to make a real and lasting commitment to Christ through His mother, knowing that she will both lead you at every moment towards her Son, and at the same time use you as a holy tool to bring others home as well. My life is no longer mine, but hers. I trust her to use me as she sees fit, regardless of what that means, and I accept with resignation to act and move towards God for her at every opportunity that presents itself.
I am a spade in her hands, working to till her garden. I might feel like I’m knee deep in manure at times, but I trust that where I am is what is best for the whole garden, and I will just keep digging. Anything for the glory of her Son.
If you think you might be interested in being consecrated to Mary, I can highly recommend the program I went through, 33 Days to Morning Glory. I found it well measured without being too much extra stuff, and it really helped me understand Marian Consecration along the way. It was really a good program, I can’t recommend it enough.
Don’t be afraid to give everything to Mary. In the words of St. John Paul the Great, “Totus Tuus!”
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