Why Consecration to Mary
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Why should we consecrate ourselves to Mary?
What was the very first thing the Son of God did to save the world?
· He entrusted himself to Mary, to be a helpless embryo in her womb, a little child in her care.
· Jesus consecrated himself to Mary.
· He gave himself entirely to her that she might form him
As His mother, what did Mary do for Jesus?
· Everything…
· She gave him his human nature
· She nourished, 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.
Jesus was the 1st Person to Consecrate Himself to Mary
He said, “I have given you an example. As I have done, you should also do. (Jn 13:15)
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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.”
Jesus was not entrusting Mary to John because he was her only living family member. The aunt of Jesus, Mary the wife of Clopas was standing at the Cross. She and Clopas were the closest family. Rather, Jesus was entrusting John to Mary. Jesus was consecrating John to Mary.
John is called “the beloved disciple” because he represents all the followers of Jesus. Therefore, 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 Mary for his own mother and he began to live as her son.
The English translation says, “John took her into his home.” But 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 soul.[1]
John took Mary into everything of his life that she might conform him to Jesus.
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.
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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 by entrusting or consecrating ourselves entirely to Mary to be her little son or daughter.
· We begin by inviting Mary into the home of our soul.
St. Ambrose writes: “May the soul of Mary be in each one of us to glorify the Lord. Mary the spirit of Mary be in each one of us to rejoice in the Lord.”
In his book The Secret of Mary (55-56) St. Louis De Montfort writes: “This devotion faithfully practiced produces countless happy effects in the soul. The most important of them is that it establishes, even here on earth, Mary’s life in the soul, so that it is no longer the soul that lives, but Mary who lives in it. In a manner of speaking, Mary’s soul becomes identified with the soul of her servant. Indeed, when by an unspeakable but real grace Mary most holy becomes Queen of a soul, she works untold wonders in it…Do not think, dear soul, that Mary, the most fruitful of all God’s creatures, who went as far as to give birth to a God-man, remains idle in a docile soul. She causes Jesus to live continuously in that soul and that soul to live in continuous union with Jesus…
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Why do we need consecration to Mary when we have Jesus?
Jesus wants to give himself to us. We have trouble receiving him – we are resistant.
This is where the mission of the Holy Spirit comes in.
The Catechism (687) tells us it is the mission of the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to us and dispose us to receive the Son.
This mission of the Spirit is to help us receive Jesus.
The Spirit enters Mary at her Immaculate Conception
· Making her the perfect human expression of the Spirit, the sign and instrument, the sacrament of the Spirit
· to make her capable of receiving Jesus at the Annunciation.
From that moment on it is the joint mission of the Spirit and Mary to come into souls to help them receive Jesus and form him there.
That is why we invite Mary into our soul by the act of consecration, to help us receive Jesus and form him within us.
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When we pray the Rosary, Mary educates and forms us to be like Jesus
When we pray the Rosary we mystically go to the home at Nazareth to be with Mary, Joseph and Jesus. It’s like stepping into the Home of the Holy Family.
St. John Paul II wrote: The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is “fully formed” in us (cf. Gal 4:19). Rosarium 15
[1] Ignace de la Potterie, Mary in the Mystery of the Covenant, Alba House, 1992, P.225-228