Day of Consecration

Yesterday, I took a day off from blogging, because it was my Day of Consecration! I completed St. Louis de Montfort's 33-Day Consecration to Jesus Through Mary for the first time. The most common days for this consecration are February 20 - March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, but when the Lord put on my heart that He desired this of me in mid-November, like in many things in my life, I did not hesitate to begin at the earliest possible moment. (The Consecration can be done on any Marian feast day.)

What a blessed experience it was to commit myself to 33 days of specific prayers and meditations! What a tremendous outpouring of grace I have felt! What peace and joy Our Blessed Mother has brought to my soul! Kneeling before the Our Lady of Fatima statue at our parish yesterday after Holy Mass, I knew that I was united to her and her Son in a new way, that through this simple formulaic spiritual journey, I was transformed.

If you have never done a consecration, please consider it. I had no idea it would be such a quiet, powerful experience. The basic format is 12 days of preparation followed by three weeks focusing on first understanding ourselves, then the Blessed Virgin Mary, and ultimately Christ. The site I link above recommends reading True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary first to discern that you wish to undertake this commitment, and I benefited from this, as well.

Here, I reproduce a portion of the consecration prayer as a public statement of my surrendering to my Lord God through Mary my Mother. Thank you, dear Jesus, for this gift!

I, N_____, a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in thy hands the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before. In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose thee this day for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God in time and in eternity.