Consecration to Jesus Through Mary

It should also be noted that although consecration to the Mother of God represents the crowning of Marian devotion, it should in no sense be considered either as a sign of or reward for spiritual perfection, having as a pre-requisite the imperative for an advanced devotion to Christ’s Mother. Rather, it is a means of Christian perfection and for a deeper Marian love and abandonment, which calls for a prudent spiritual preparation, as all gifts of ourselves call for. Marian consecration is unquestionably inferior to the reception of Holy Eucharist, and yet even young children properly and rightfully partake of the Bread of Life at the Sacrifice of the Mass, based upon appropriate spiritual preparation. So too should be the case for total consecration to Jesus through Mary.

Theological Foundations

The theological foundations for an act of consecration to Jesus through Mary lie in the Marian doctrines of Spiritual Maternity and Mediatrix of all graces. De Montfort explains:

Why is Marian consecration so efficacious in bringing an abundance of new graces to the Christian soul? Marian consecration grants our Blessed Mother the freedom to use her full power of intercession in the sanctification and spiritual protection of her earthly children. In imitation of the Heavenly Father, she always must respect our free will. In a certain sense, Our Lady can only intercede on behalf of the Christian to the extent that each adult person freely allows her to do so. When a person then consecrates himself or herself to Mary, this free and total gift of self to Mary allows her to use her full God-given power of intercession to sanctify the person in the graces of Jesus Christ and moreover to provide him or her with spiritual protection from the pomps and works of Satan. Marian consecration completely opens the door of our heart to the powerful means of union with Christ given to our Mother and Advocate of the Church.

We again recall the words of the Second Vatican Council that Mary’s God-given task of mediation never diminishes or overshadows the task of Jesus Christ the one Mediator, but rather shows his power and fosters intimate union with him:

Mary’s function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence on men originates not in any inner necessity but in the disposition of God. It flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely upon it and draws all its power from it. It does not hinder in any way the immediate union of the faithful with Christ but on the contrary fosters it (Lumen Gentium, No. 60).

St. Maximilian Kolbe’s "Consecration to the Immaculata"

A contemporary Marian apostle who promulgated Marian consecration worldwide is the great Franciscan saint and Auschwitz hero, St. Maximilian Kolbe. St. Maximilian presents a sublime Mariology that centers around Our Lady as the "Immaculata," based on her self-revelation at Lourdes, "I am the Immaculate Conception." St. Maximilian tells us that Mary is Immaculate by her very essence, and therefore becomes the perfect human instrument of the Holy Spirit, whom Kolbe refers to as the "Uncreated Immaculate Conception" (a divine and perfect example of all conceptions, proceeding from the perfection of divine love between the Father and the Son). (14)

St. Maximilian points out the profound, sublime union between Mary, the human Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit, the divine, uncreated Immaculate Conception, in the mediation of all graces to the human family. Kolbe writes:

Because of Mary’s intimate union with the Holy Spirit in the sanctification of humanity, Kolbe sees consecration to the Immaculata as the greatest means by which the human family can be "reconquered" for the Kingdom of God: "The Immaculata must conquer the whole world for herself, and each individual soul as well, so that she can bring all back to God." (16)

Kolbe, much like de Montfort, desired every person to renew their baptismal promises by making a total consecration to the Immaculata. As Kolbe preached on Easter Sunday of 1937:

We see both with St. Louis Marie de Montfort and St. Maximilian Kolbe, arguably the two greatest apostles of Marian Consecration, that the final goal of Marian consecration is always ultimately directed towards a greater fidelity and love offered to our divine Lord and Redeemer in a renewal of our foundational baptismal vows to Jesus through Mary.

Marian Consecration in Modern Papal Teaching

The popes of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, have enthusiastically encouraged consecration to Mary, Mother of the Lord, both by word and example. Repeated papal encouragement has been directed to St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s classic work, True Devotion to Mary. A nearly unprecedented support for an individual spiritual writing has been granted by the popes of the last one hundred fifty years in the forms of praises and indulgences encouraging the faithful to read True Devotion to Mary, and to make the act of total consecration to Jesus through Mary. For example:

In his 1987 Marian encyclical Redemptoris Mater, Pope John Paul II discussed the characteristics of "authentic Marian spirituality and devotion" and singled out amidst the rich history in the Church of Marian spirituality the writings of St. Louis Marie de Montfort:

On a more personal note, John Paul II said the following words about True Devotion in an address to the de Montfort Fathers:

Further, Pope John Paul II offered a rich theology for personal Marian consecration, again in Redemptoris Mater. Here the pope discussed what he calls a "filial entrustment to the Mother of Christ." For his theology of Marian consecration or entrustment, John Paul returned to the foot of the Cross (Jn 19:26).

It is at Calvary that Jesus gave Mary as Spiritual Mother to John and beyond John, to every "beloved disciple." As the pope stated: "Mary’s motherhood, which becomes man’s inheritance, is a gift: a gift which Christ himself makes personally to every individual." (27)

How then does John, the beloved disciple, respond to this gift of Mary’s motherhood? The Gospel records John’s response: "And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home" (Jn 19:27). John, then, becomes an example of how every "beloved disciple" of the Lord should respond to Jesus’ gift of Mary’s spiritual motherhood, a gift offered directly from the Cross: to take Mary into our own homes.

The specific way Christians should take Mary "into their homes" is by consecrating or entrusting themselves, by offering themselves as spiritual sons and daughters to their Christ-given Mother:

Pope John Paul II goes on to explain that the word "home" refers to the spiritual life, the inner life of the believer. This son or daughter-like act of Marian entrusting invites the Mother of Jesus into the spiritual life of the Christian, allowing Mary to exercise her unifying power of grace between the faithful and her divine Son. As the pope describes, the Christian who entrusts himself to Mary: