Consecration To Mary?

[Monica]

OK, so i was reading a prayer of consecration to mary (and don't start on me again-YES i got it from a Catholic source - http://www.webdesk.com/catholic/prayers/co...tiontomary.html )

and here's an excerpt i founs disturbing....

We consecrate to thee our very being and our whole life; all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. To thee we give our bodies, our hearts and our souls; to thee we give our homes, our families, our country. We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to thee

What is this? YOU, your life, your heart, your soul belong to JESUS. What is this, giving it to Mary?? Sounds completely WRONG, like you're placing mary WAY above Jesus.

Does this sound rude? I hope it doesn't. I'm just doing what you told me to do ASKING you about this.

God Bless,

Monica

[vianney]

No it doesnt sound rude. Very well put. You see though we arent putting ourselves to Mary and then period. The whole process is called a consecration to mary and you dot his for the end result of having an amazing understanding of Jesus as his mother did. Ppl who have done this have said that yes their relatinship with Mary grew but MOST IMPROTANTLY they became SO MUCH VERY VERY more close to Jesus.

[immaculata]

When I consecrated myself to Mary, it meant that I'm allowing her to use me in whatever way she sees fit to bring about the work of her Son. Just like she told the servants at the wedding feast at Cana, "Do whatever he tells you," I'm counting on Mary to lead me to her Son in the best way possible. Who else knows Christ better than his own mother? Christ gave us his mother on the cross to be our Mother, "Woman, behold your son.. son behold your Mother." He's speaking for ALL of us- Mary is our Mother, and she guides and protects her children.

We're NOT 'worshipping' Mary as equal to Jesus. We give her the highest respect of all the saints because she was sinless- the perfect example of what a follower of Jesus should be. We look to her for guidance of how to follow Christ humbly and perfectly. We ask for her intercession on our behalf. But giving honor to Mary does not take away from the honor we give to Jesus. By honoring Mary, we ARE honoring Jesus! "To Jesus through Mary." Mary will always point us towards her Son, telling us to "do whatever he tells you."

All for the Immaculata,

Katrina

[Aloysius]

B) one small thought- There is no competition in heaven between Jesus and Mary. if i consecrate myself to Mary, Jesus isn't like " O man! why didn't he just come directly to me!?" He's more like, "what a humble man who would submit to my will by being directed by His mom, my mom, who i gave to Him"

[marielapin]

St Louis de Montfort

and Consecration to Mary

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The principle of complete consecration to Mary was taken up and promoted by St Louis de Montfort (1673-1716), who flourished slightly later than St Margaret Mary Alacoque. This was a belief which had been gathering momentum in the Church over a period of centuries.

He took the idea of "Holy Slavery" to Mary, as found amongst French spiritual writers, including St John Eudes, and developed it more fully. This idea of being Mary's "slave" had been present in the Church probably since the time of the earliest writers, so it was not an innovation, and seems to have been present throughout Europe even before the time of St Louis.

The notion of "slavery" sounds odd to modern ears, but all it really means is being in a freely willed state of total consecration, total abandonment, to the love and guidance of Mary, in the knowledge that it is the ideal way to get closer to God. Similarly, the idea of consecration to Mary in St Louis's thought, which can be misunderstood, really means consecrating oneself to Jesus through Mary, and is not an end in itself.

St Louis spent most of his priestly life preaching and teaching in western France, basing his teaching on Mary on the principle that just as God had initiated the work of Redemption on the basis of her co-operation, so he would continue and finish that work by means of her: "It was through the blessed Virgin Mary that Jesus Christ came into the world, and it is also through her that he must reign in the world."

He also stressed Mary's role as spiritual mother of all Christians, basing himself on the fact of her divine maternity and her role in Redemption. He taught that by means of her faith, trust, love, and holiness, she merited the status of "Co-Redemptrix," one that gives her rights over all mankind, since Jesus' death was sufficient to save all mankind.

Since she is the spiritual mother of every human being, then we are her "children" in the order of grace, and as children, especially when they are still in the womb or very small, are totally dependent on their mother, so we too are totally dependent on Mary as "Mediatrix" of all graces. This implies that we should be totally devoted to her, which is the essence of the "Holy slavery of love," although perhaps the idea of "spiritual childhood," as popularised through St Thérèse of Lisieux, is easier for the modern mind to understand and accept.

St Louis composed a formula of consecration to Mary that emphasised the idea of the individual making a total offering of self to God through Mary, arguing that this was really a renewal of the baptismal vows, in which the individual is completely consecrated to God. He insisted though that this consecration had to be carried over into daily life, as a lived spirit, if it was to be really effective.

St Louis's major work, the Treatise on True Devotion, was hidden away and not found until 1842, when it providentially began to contribute to the resurgence of Marian ideas that took place from 1830 onwards. His work has been approved by a number of Popes, and he was finally canonised in 1947, thus indicating that the Church has found nothing objectionable in his ideas on the total consecration to Mary.

St Louis made a number of interesting prophecies concerning the future role of Mary in the Church and the world, including this statement in the True Devotion: "If ...as is certain, the knowledge and the kingdom of Jesus Christ must come into the world, it can only be as a necessary consequence of the knowledge and reign of Mary. She who first gave him to the world will establish his kingdom in the world."

He argued that this was the case "because God has decided to begin and accomplish his greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since he created her, [and so] we can safely believe that he will not change his plan in the time to come, for he is God and therefore does not change in his thoughts or his way of acting."

St Louis then went on to describe Mary's future role: "The salvation of the world began through Mary and through her it must be accomplished. Mary scarcely appeared in the first coming of Jesus Christ so that men, as yet insufficiently instructed and enlightened concerning the person of her Son, might not wander from the truth by becoming too strongly attached to her."

He argues that the reasons for hiding Mary's importance, that is the danger of her being treated as a goddess by the early Church, no longer exist, and so now God can reveal her and make her better known during the "latter times." This prophecy certainly seems to have been at least partially fulfilled in the nineteenth and twentieth century Marian apparitions and their aftermath, but St Louis apparently goes on to argue that an even more splendid Marian age is to come.

He foresaw men and women who in their true devotion to Mary would prepare the way for Christ by living the message of the Gospel in simplicity and humility, and thus inaugurate a future great triumph for Christianity, but one also involving persecution and suffering for the Church. This seems to agree with the prophecies made by St John Bosco in the nineteenth and by Mary herself at Fatima in the twentieth century.

Sources: Patrick J. Gaffney, S.M.M., "The Holy Slavery of Love," in Mariology, Vol. 3; Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. trans., Fr. B. Kelly, The Mother of the Saviour, (TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford, 1993); St Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, (Montfort Press, Liverpool, 1976).

[immaculata]

I'm starting my deMontfort consecration this Wednesday. B)

[marielapin]

I was kinda (ok a lot) weirded out by this notion at first as well. But in all Catholic teachings about Mary, you have to look at the end goal: to be closer to Jesus. Mary wants all of us to be closer to Jesus. She wants to pull all of us closer to Him. So, if we consecrate ourselves to her, we say that we want Mary to pull us closer to Jesus.

Let's just put it this way: Mary is the perfect role model for every Christian. Why? Because she said yes to God in every aspect in her life. There is no way we could ever be like Christ. Never. He is perfect, we are not. But we can be like Mary, and say yes to God in ways that make the rest of the world shake their heads. We can try to perfectly subservient to God like Mary, even though we can never be perfectly subservient to God like Jesus.

Consecrate in this way means to dedicate solemnly to a service or goal. Well, the goal is to become closer to Jesus. In a Protestants mind, this seems backwards. But like yourself put it, Monica, from what you read of St. Kolbe, Mary is always pointing towards Jesus. She said "do what he tells you".

[Good Friday]

We consecrate to thee our very being and our whole life; all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. To thee we give our bodies, our hearts and our souls; to thee we give our homes, our families, our country. We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to thee

Jesus Himself gave His very being and His whole life to Mary when He became flesh in her womb. He gave all that He had, all that He loved, all that He was to Mary when He gave the Church to her as children in the person of St. John at the foot of the Cross. He gave His body to her, He formed His own heart from hers, and since His soul was a part of His human person, it was intimately connected to Mary. He instructed St. John to give his home to Mary.

When we give all this to Mary, we imitate Jesus. We humble ourselves as Jesus humbled Himself, by giving ourselves totally to Mary. Scripture supports this, and the constant and uninterrupted Tradition of Christ's undying Church supports it. If you study, you'll see like I did. :)

[Theologian in Training]

When you look through a window, you can see the person standing on the other side. At the same time, you are aware of the window...Mary is the window through which we see Christ. She is the first person to bear Jesus in her womb, how can we think of the Incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, without the means through whom He became flesh?

Christ gave her to us as a model, and we see this in the Scriptures themselves. She was the means through which Jesus performed His first miracle at Cana, and she is the person about whom Jesus was speaking when He said to John, Behold, your Mother.

Mary is not only the Mother of God, she is the mother of us all. Yes, it may be a difficult thing to understand, but once it makes sense, it is one of the most beautiful realities to grasp.

I will offer my Rosary for you tonight.

God Bless

[JP2Iloveyou]

Monica, Mary is our mother. She loves us more than our mothers on earth can ever hope to. Christ gave her to John as he was dying saying, "Woman, behold your son. Behold, your mother." I won't rewrite what others have said, but basicly, when we consecrate ourselves to Mary, we are saying that through her, we want to love Christ more. Pope John Paul II teaches in his encyclical Rosarium Virginis Mariae (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary) that, "To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ." So, in short, yes, we can go straight to Jesus. I pray straight to Jesus all the time. However, almost always, my prayers are answered faster when I pray to Mary, asking her to take my prayers to her Son.

[TempleofVesarius]

I was always told

TO JESUS THRU MARY

[VeraMaria]

I am going to consecrate myself to Mary next year!! :D

[BLAZEr]

I am going to consecrate myself to Mary next year!! :D

Why waiting? My consecration anniversary is Dec. 12th . . . I'm consecrated to Mary in the Montfort method on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe . . . every year I try to renew my consecration using the Kolbe method 8 days before and then I do the Montfort one on the 12th . . .

I hope its not heresy to mix and match consecrations! ;)

[VeraMaria]

Why waiting?

We are doing it together, as a group, in my youth group.

On January 1st, Feast of Mary, Mother of God. :D

[Paladin D]

How does the consencration process go? I'm so lost .