What Is Consecration to Mary?
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What is Consecration to Mary?
We need to begin with the purpose of life – you know – to go to college, get a high-paying job and a big house and drive a Tesla…Nothing wrong with that. But there is something infinitely better. The purpose of life is to share in the life of God. We receive the life of God in Jesus.
And it is the mission of the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus to us. Consecration is the process of the Holy Spirit forming Jesus within us. Think of the Consecration of the Eucharist. The bell is rung at the prayer of the epiclesis while the priest asks God the Father to send the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into Jesus
· So, Consecration is the Holy Spirit bringing Jesus into the bread and wine, transforming the bread and wine into Jesus.
The Holy Spirit does something similar to us
· The Holy Spirit consecrates us,
· the Holy Spirit brings Jesus into our soul to transform us to be like God as we are told in 1 John 3:2
How does the Holy Spirit do this?
· Through Mary.
How do we know this? Well, the first time the Holy Spirit brought Jesus into the world, he did so in union with Mary.
o The Holy Spirit and Mary formed Jesus in her womb.
o The Holy Spirit and Mary will form Jesus in you.
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Jesus was the 1st Person to Consecrate Himself to Mary
Think about this, the very first thing the Son of God did to save us was to entrust himself entirely to Mary, to be a helpless embryo in her womb and a little child in her care. Is it possible to depend upon on another person more than this? This is amazing but Jesus was the first person to entrust himself entirely to Mary – He consecrated himself to her.
As His mother, what did Mary do for Jesus?
· Everything…
· By the power of the Holy Spirit,
o Mary conceived and gave birth to Jesus,
· She nourished him, protected and provided for him,
· Educated and formed him,
· Intuited and prompted the beginning of his public ministry at Cana
· Stood by him at the Cross and laid him in the tomb.
As Christians, what will the Holy Spirit and Mary do for us?
· Everything…
· The Holy Spirit and Mary conceive and give birth to the life of Jesus in us through Baptism;
· they watch over, protect and provide for us;
· they educate and form us in the likeness of Christ.
· They walk with us as we carry our cross and support us at the moment of death: “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
What should we do if we want to live in imitation of Jesus?
Begin by walking on water, preaching to the multitudes, raising the dead…We should Begin the way Jesus did and Consecrate oneself entirely to Mary to be her little son or daughter.
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The Apostle John was the 2nd Person to Consecrate Himself to Mary
John 19:26-27 “Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son. Then to the disciple he said, 'This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.”
The original Greek text, “elaben ho mathetes auten eis ta idia,” suggests a deeper meaning: The beloved disciple took Mary not just into his physical home but into his interior life, into his soul.[1]
From the Cross Jesus offered the world a great gift,
· He offered His mother to be our Spiritual Mother.
John accepted this gift and he took her for his own mother and he began to live as her son.
In the act of Consecration to Mary, we receive from Christ, Mary as our Spiritual Mother, and we begin to live as her son or daughter.
John Paul II said: The maternity of Mary is a gift that Christ makes to each man personally, each must accept personally. By Consecration (Entrustment) we take Mary for our Spiritual Mother[2]
By consecration to Mary
· we accept Mary as our spiritual mother
· we begin to live a relationship with her as her children
· we experience her powerful maternal care.
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Consecration to Mary is as old as Christianity
St. John Damascene was an early champion of Consecration to Mary. Though Catholic, he lived under Muslim civil rule in Syria. In the year 726, The Byzantine Emperor at Constantinople, issued a decree that all sacred images and icons must be destroyed. John began to fight against this unjust edict, writing pamphlets defending Sacred Images. Since John lived in Damascus in Syria under Muslim civil rule, the Byzantine emperor had no power to stop him. The Emperor wrote a letter to the Muslim Caliph accusing John of instigating a revolution against him. A lie, but an effective one. The Caliph had John brought to the center of the city and had his right hand cut off in public.
John took his hand and went to the Church where he lay prostrate in front of an icon of Mary – begging her for help until he passed out. While unconscious, Mary came to him, promising to restore his hand. She also encouraged him to continue to fight for the truth of sacred images and never to quit. When he awoke his hand was restored. With his right-hand John went on to defend victoriously the use of sacred images. In gratitude John placed on the icon a hand fashioned out of silver. This Icon of the Mother of God, named "Of Three Hands" ("Tricherousa") resides on Mt. Athos today.
The attitude of John Damascene was this:
· Mary, I belong to you
· I cannot restore my hand
· But you can – so you take care of it
Maximilian Kolbe –
· I see Mary everywhere, I see difficulties nowhere!
· Make this your same attitude
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Devotion to Mary is consecration to Mary.
Devotion comes from the Latin word which means to consecrate.
Consecration to Mary involves Four steps:
1. To entrust or consecrate oneself to Mary as Jesus did in the Incarnation;
2. To live the Consecration by a lived relationship with Mary
3. To sit at the School of Mary each day in the Rosary
4. To help others to the Heart of Mary by the Apostolate of Family and Friendship
[1] Ignace de la Potterie, Mary in the Mystery of the Covenant, Alba House, 1992, P.225-228
[2] Redemptoris Mater 47