Marian Consecration

Placing your entire life in the hands of the Mother who will carry it to her Son.

What It Is and What It Does

Marian consecration is the act of entrusting everything you are and everything you have to the Blessed Virgin Mary so that she can form you, protect you, and present you to her Son.

It is not a transaction or a formula. It is a relationship. It is the moment when you stop holding back a piece of yourself and say, I give you all of me. My prayers, my works, my joys, my sufferings, my past, my present, my future. Take it all and use it however God wills.

St. Louis de Montfort, who wrote the foundational text on this devotion in the early 1700s, called it "the surest, easiest, shortest, and the most perfect means to becoming a saint."

He said that Jesus came into the world through Mary, and that the most natural way for us to go to Jesus is through her. Consecration formalizes what our hearts already know: we need a Mother to lead us home.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, who gave his life for a stranger at Auschwitz, built his entire apostolate around total consecration to the Immaculate. He said that belonging to Mary was the key to everything, because she is the most direct path to the Heart of her Son.

Pope John Paul II took "Totus Tuus," totally yours, as his papal motto, drawn directly from St. Louis de Montfort's consecration prayer. He credited his consecration to Mary with shaping his entire life and pontificate, including his survival after being shot in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, the anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima.

Our Lady has asked for consecration at multiple apparitions. At Fatima, she asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. At Akita, she asked for souls to be consecrated to Jesus through her. At Medjugorje, she said, "Give me your hands folded in prayer, give me your hearts cleansed in confession, and I will lead you to my Son."

What changes when you make a consecration? Everything and nothing. Your external life may look the same, but the interior shifts. You begin to see her hand in things you used to call coincidence. You find yourself drawn more deeply into prayer, into the sacraments, into the Rosary. Temptations lose their grip because you have already decided who you belong to. You begin to live with a lightness that comes from no longer carrying everything yourself, because you have placed it in the hands of the one person in all of creation who carries things perfectly.

How To

The most widely used method is St. Louis de Montfort's Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary, which has been adapted for modern readers by Fr. Michael Gaitley in his book 33 Days to Morning Glory.

Preparation: 33 Days 

The preparation period lasts thirty-three days and is designed to end on a Marian feast day, which becomes your consecration day.

Common feast days chosen include:

The Annunciation (March 25) Our Lady of Fatima (May 13) The Visitation (May 31) The Assumption (August 15) The Birthday of Mary (September 8) Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7) The Immaculate Conception (December 8) Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12) Christmas (December 25)

Count back thirty-three days from your chosen feast day to determine your start date.

During the 33 Days

Each day involves a short reading and a prayer. Fr. Gaitley's 33 Days to Morning Glory divides the preparation into four weeks, each focused on a different Marian saint:

Week 1: St. Louis de Montfort and the total gift of self

Week 2: St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Immaculate Conception

Week 3: St. Teresa of Calcutta and the mission of love

Week 4: St. John Paul II and living out the consecration

The daily commitment is about fifteen to twenty minutes. It is not overwhelming. It is simply showing up, day after day, and letting her form your heart.

Consecration Day

On your chosen feast day, go to Mass and receive Holy Communion. After Communion, pray the Act of Consecration. This is the moment when you formally hand over everything to Mary. Many people do this in front of an image of Our Lady or at a Marian shrine.

After Consecration

Consecration is not a one-time event. It is a way of life. Renew it daily, even if only with a brief prayer:

"I am all yours, and all I have is yours, O most loving Jesus, through Mary, your most holy Mother."

Pray the Rosary daily. Go to confession monthly. Live with the awareness that you belong to her, and let that belonging shape every decision, every relationship, every moment.

Prayers

Act of Consecration (St. Louis de Montfort):

I, [your name], a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in your hands the vows of my Baptism. I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works, and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.

In the presence of all the heavenly court, I choose you this day for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to you, as your slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present, and future, leaving to you the entire and full right of disposing of me and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to your good pleasure, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity. Amen.

Daily Renewal:

I am all yours, and all I have is yours, O most loving Jesus, through Mary, your most holy Mother. Totus tuus.

---

Further Reading

• 33 Days to Morning Glory · Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC (book)

• True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary · St. Louis de Montfort (book)

• Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary · EWTN

• Marian Consecration · Marians of the Immaculate Conception