Consecration
How to Make a Marian Consecration
Marian consecration · 8 steps
An overview of consecration to Jesus through Mary: what it means, how to prepare, which feast to choose, the act itself, and how to live and renew it afterwards.
8 steps · About 15 minutes
Marian consecration is the giving of oneself entirely to Jesus Christ through the hands of his Mother, so that she may form us into the likeness of her Son. Its best-known form is the 'total consecration' taught by Saint Louis de Montfort in True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, summed up in the words Saint John Paul II took as his motto: Totus tuus, 'I am all yours.' The Church understands the act as a way of living out the promises of Baptism: the Directory on Popular Piety explains that the word 'consecration' is used here in a broad, non-technical sense — strictly, consecration is reserved for self-offerings that have God as their object — and that 'entrustment' is the alternative term some prefer for what we do when we place ourselves in Mary's care. It does not replace devotion to Christ; it is a way of belonging to him more completely.
What you need
- A period of preparation — traditionally the 33 days of Saint Louis de Montfort (see the companion guide)
- A Marian feast chosen as the day of consecration
- The text of the act of consecration you will pray
- Confession and Holy Communion arranged for the feast day
When to pray it
The act is made on a Marian feast at the end of the preparation and renewed each year on the same feast; many renew it briefly every morning.
Steps
Step 1: Understand what you are doing
Read what the consecration is before you begin: a free, total gift of yourself — body and soul, possessions and merits — to Jesus through Mary, made by a baptised Christian who wants to live his Baptism to the full. calls it the 'perfect renewal of the vows and promises of holy Baptism.' Read at least the relevant chapters of True Devotion, or a sound modern presentation of it, so that the act is an informed one.
Step 2: Choose the feast and set the date
Pick a feast of Our Lady and count back to the start of your preparation. Feasts commonly chosen include the Immaculate Conception (8 December), Our Lady of Guadalupe (12 December), the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (1 January), Our Lady of Lourdes (11 February), the Annunciation (25 March), Our Lady of Fatima (13 May), the Visitation (31 May), the Immaculate Heart of Mary (the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart), Our Lady of Mount Carmel (16 July), the Assumption (15 August), the Queenship of Mary (22 August), the Nativity of Mary (8 September), Our Lady of the Rosary (7 October) and the Presentation of Mary (21 November).
Step 3: Make the preparation
Give the weeks before the feast to prayer and reading. The de Montfort method has twelve preliminary days of turning away from the spirit of the world, then a week each on knowledge of self, knowledge of Mary and knowledge of Jesus; the companion guide sets out that schedule day by day. Pray the for light, the with Mary, and the , and pray the Rosary daily if you can.
Step 4: Go to confession and receive Holy Communion
Go to confession in the days before the feast, and on the feast itself attend Mass and receive Holy Communion. intends the act to be made in the state of grace and in union with Christ received in the Eucharist, since it is to him, through Mary, that we give ourselves.
Step 5: Pray the act of consecration
After Communion, or before an image of Our Lady at home or in church, pray the Act of Consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary of slowly and in full, aloud if possible. Many sign and date a written copy and keep it. If you are consecrating a family or a parish, one person reads the act and the others join in the concluding words.
Step 6: Give thanks
Close with the , Mary's own song of thanksgiving, and a . Ask her, in the words of the , never to leave your side. Then let the day be a feast: the consecration is meant to be joyful, not anxious.
Step 7: Live the consecration
's rule for afterwards is to do everything 'with Mary, in Mary, through Mary and for Mary.' Practically that means the daily Rosary or at least a decade, the Angelus, a before decisions, and treating every duty as something done in her company. The Rosary in particular, as Rosarium Virginis Mariae says, is the school in which Mary teaches us Christ.
Step 8: Renew it often
Renew the full act every year on the feast you chose, ideally after the same preparation or a shorter one. Each morning you can renew it in the short form de Montfort gives: "I am all thine, and all that I have is thine, O most loving Jesus, through Mary, thy most holy Mother." Renewal keeps the consecration from becoming a memory and turns it into a way of life.
Tips
- Do not rush the preparation. The act takes a minute to say; the 33 days are what make it sincere.
- If you cannot make the full de Montfort preparation, a shorter novena of prayer and a good confession is a legitimate way to prepare; the Church prescribes no particular program.
- Consecration is a beginning, not a finish line. The daily Rosary, the Angelus, and a short renewal of the act keep it alive.
- Parishes and families can make the act together; a priest may lead it after Mass on the feast.