Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary honours the interior life of the Mother of God: her love for her Son and for us, her sorrow, and her purity of heart. It has deep roots in the tradition, and it became a request of the Church's own life at Fatima in 1917, when Our Lady told the children that God wished to establish devotion to her Immaculate Heart in the world and asked for consecration to it and for Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart in 1942, Saint John Paul II renewed the consecration in union with the world's bishops on 25 March 1984, and Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine to it on 25 March 2022. To consecrate yourself to the Immaculate Heart is to take refuge in Mary's heart and to be led by it to the Heart of her Son.

What you need

• An image of the Immaculate Heart, or of Our Lady of Fatima
• The text of an act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
• A rosary, and the intention to pray it daily
• Confession arranged in the days before

When to pray it

Any Marian feast; most fitting on the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart), on a First Saturday, on 13 May (Our Lady of Fatima) or 13 October, or on 8 December.

Steps

1. 1

   Step 1: Understand the request of Fatima

   At Fatima on 13 June 1917 Our Lady told Lucia that Jesus wished to establish devotion to her Immaculate Heart in the world and that this Heart would be her refuge and the way that leads to God; on 13 July she asked for the consecration of Russia and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays, and in 1925 at Pontevedra she set out the First Saturday devotion in detail. The Church's own devotion to the Immaculate Heart is older and rests on the Gospel: Mary 'kept all these things, pondering them in her heart' (Luke 2:19), and a sword pierced her soul (Luke 2:35).

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   Step 2: Prepare with confession and prayer

   Spend several days, or a novena, before the day of consecration praying the Rosary and the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary▾ and reading the Gospel passages about Mary. Go to confession in the days before, so that the heart you give her is clean, and on the day attend Mass and receive Holy Communion.

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   Step 3: Pray the act of consecration

   Before an image of the Immaculate Heart, at home or in church, pray an act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary slowly and in full, aloud if you can. Several approved texts are in use; any of them makes the same gift — your heart, your life and your loved ones placed in her Heart to be brought to Jesus. Finish with the Hail, Holy Queen (Salve Regina▾) and the Sub Tuum Praesidium▾: 'We fly to thy protection▾, O holy Mother of God.'

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   Step 4: Make the five First Saturdays

   On the first Saturday of five consecutive months, in reparation to the Immaculate Heart: go to confession (within about a week before or after), receive Holy Communion, pray five decades of the Rosary, and keep Mary company for fifteen minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary. This is the devotion asked for at Pontevedra, and it is the ordinary way of living the consecration.

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   Step 5: Pray the Rosary daily

   Our Lady asked at every Fatima apparition for the daily Rosary. Pray it, or at least a decade, every day, with the Fatima Prayer▾ after each Glory Be: 'O my Jesus▾, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.' Saint John Paul II's Rosarium Virginis Mariae is the Church's fullest guide to praying it well.

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   Step 6: Renew the consecration on Marian feasts

   Renew the act each year on the memorial of the Immaculate Heart and on any Marian feast you keep, especially 13 May and 8 December, and renew it briefly every day with the Sub Tuum Praesidium▾ or a Hail Mary▾. Offer the small sacrifices of the day in reparation, as the children of Fatima did, and wear the Brown Scapular or the Miraculous Medal if you wish as a sign of belonging to her.

Tips

• The Fatima message is a private revelation the Church has judged worthy of belief; the consecration rests on the Church's ancient devotion to Mary's Heart, not on believing every detail.
• The First Saturdays are the practical form of this consecration: keep the five, and then keep them as a habit.
• The consecration to the Immaculate Heart and the Montfort consecration are the same self-gift to Jesus through Mary in two forms; you do not need both, but nothing prevents you from making both.
• Sub Tuum Praesidium, the oldest known prayer to Mary, is a two-line renewal of the consecration you can say anywhere.

Related devotions

• Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
• The Five First Saturdays
• The Holy Rosary
• The Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
• The Miraculous Medal

Related saints

• Saint Pope John Paul II
• Saint Louis de Montfort