Marian Consecration
"Her Property and Possession"About Marian Consecration
Consecration to Our Lady is a very beautiful and serious commitment and exercise of love. Therefore one must not treat such a sacred thing lightly. The consecration should be made rather with worthy preparation and fully engaged effort.
By this consecration, one offers himself wholly to Our Lady, so that in all he does and undergoes, he depends on her. If it is made as it should be, this consecration achieves a complete surrender of self into Our Lady’s hands. From the moment of consecration, she is to enter the life of the person in order to completely Marianize it — to transform it according to her ways. The consecrated person ought to succeed in “living with Mary, for Mary, in Mary,” as St. Louis Montfort teaches. But how many are there who truly practice and live their Marian consecration in this way?
There are two kinds of consecration to Our Lady:
1) Simple consecration: This is one that is made privately, or in some pious Marian association (as the Daughters of Mary, the Legion of Mary, the Militia of the Immaculate), and it entails a generous and fervent, individual apostolate.
The consecration of families (strongly recommended by St. Gregory), of children (even before birth), of a school, a town, of a nation, etc., belong also to this kind of consecration.
2) Consecration of ourselves as slaves of Mary, or as her property, or as a victim in a total sacrifice of love for her:
The consecration of oneself as a slave is taught by St. Louis de Montfort, and it expresses principally the sacrifice of one’s liberty in order to live fettered and ruled by love for Our Lady.
Consecration of oneself as her property was taught by St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, and this principally expresses an unconditional surrender of oneself into Mary’s immaculate hands as her instrument or property.
The other form of consecration is inspired by the Little Flower’s offering of herself as a victim of Jesus’ merciful love, and it expresses principally the total immolation, the complete sacrifice, of oneself to God, to become like Mary when she totally sacrificed herself in the exercise of generous, merciful love.
Identical in substance, each of these forms of consecration is intended to make us carry out a filial devotion to Our Lady in the most deep-rooted, radical way. They mean to make us sink our roots into Mary’s Heart with the happy certainty that “he who plants his roots in Mary becomes holy” (St. Bonaventure).
The experience the saints have had assures us that this is quite true.
Solemn Act of Consecration - According to St. Maximilian Kolbe
O Immaculate, Queen of heaven and earth, Refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to You, I, an unworthy sinner, cast myself at Your feet, humbly imploring You to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to Yourself as Your possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death, and eternity, whatever pleases You. If it pleases You, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what has been said of You: “She will crush your head”, and “You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world.” Let me be a fit instrument in Your immaculate and most merciful hands for introducing and increasing Your glory to the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed Kingdom of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For, wherever You enter, You obtain the grace of conversion and sanctification, since it is through Your hands that all graces come to us from the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
V.Allow me to praise You, O most holy Virgin.
R. Give me strength against Your enemies.
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