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There are many ways to consecrate one’s self to the Blessed Virgin. But only one thing is really important.

The history of this devotion

St. Louis de Montfort devoted much of his pen to explaining the difference between true devotion and false devotion. His books The Secret of Mary and True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin are devoted to this topic.

When a famous Anglican wrote a treatise, about 150 years ago, condemning devotion to the Blessed Virgin among other Catholic practices, several Catholics responded, including this letter by Dr. Ward, and this letter by St. John Henry Newman, who defended it from the position of the Fathers of the Church: “Here, I say, as on other points, the Fathers are enough for me. I do not wish to say more than they, and will not say less.” (page 26).

Other more modern books have been written to try to simplify this seemingly complex topic. But it’s very simple:

Jesus gave us Mary as our Mother on the cross, with the words “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your Mother.” As Jesus is the new Adam, Mary is the new Eve, taking an active role in helping us get to Heaven.

The basis of devotion to Mary

Mary is our Mother. And she was also completely without any sin, even so far as being the Immaculate Conception. So she loves us with a more perfect love than the most loving of mothers on earth ever could. Her love for us is pure, completely unselfish, and entirely motivated by a pure and holy love of God.

Sometimes we are afraid of God, because we know about his justice. So like Adam and Eve, when we sin, we try to hide from God. But our good Mother protects us from our Father’s anger. She comforts us, she helps us to see that God is not the big, mean, angry dad that we’re afraid he is. That he only wants to help us.

And sometimes horrifyingly bad things happen to us even when we’re innocent. Mary also went through the deeply traumatic experience of watching her only son being crucified under false accusations, even though she had never sinned to deserve to have such a fate. She survived this horror of horrors, and can help us survive our own nightmarish experiences, proportionately to how much we entrust ourselves to her help and loving care.

Consecration to Mary is all about completely abandoning ourselves to Mary. This is why a significant amount of writing about it by the saints has been designed to build up trust in Mary: the more we trust Mary, the more completely and trustingly we can throw ourselves into her loving and safe arms.

The power and love of Mary

Mary was crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth. Just as Jesus said “all authority on earth and in Heaven has been given to me” after His Resurrection, experience and the writings of the Church confirm that Jesus delegates all this authority to Mary, to be disposed of at her good pleasure.

So she is completely able to help us, in any need, in any temptation, in any dire situation or danger, temporal or spiritual.

And being perfectly loving, she is willing to help us, and in fact she wants our good more than we do!

Real life examples

Just consider a few examples already posted on this site in the Book Snippets section:

• At the instigation of St. Dominic, the demons of a possessed man testified that Mary and the Rosary are powerful against them, and the man was immediately freed from them by the Rosary. (Mary and the Demons)

• A monastery of nuns which had become very lax due to demonic influence, was reformed by one nun who joined and faithfully persevered in the recitation of the Rosary. (The Rosary and the reformed abbey)

• A very sinful young woman was granted the grace of having Jesus personally and miraculously rebuke her for her sins, thanks to the Rosary she prayed every day, and changed her life. (Catherine the beautiful, and the Rosary)

• After a man’s demonic state was revealed by St. Dominic’s prayers, the bad man began to pray the Rosary, which so changed his life that a later miracle showed him crowned with roses. (Monster converted by Rosary)

• For over a decade, a demon waited in disguise to strangle a very sinful baron and take him to hell, but could not because the man prayed 7 Hail Marys every day. (Spared Hell by Hail Marys)

• After a man was falsely condemned for murdering his friend, he asked Mary for help, and the dead man spoke by a miracle and admitted that his friend had not killed him. (Acquitted murder by miracle of Mary)

• A priest who continued in sin, was about to be killed by an angel for his wicked life, but suddenly crying out for Mary’s protection, was spared, and led a holy life until his death. (Priest spared death through love of Mary)

• Consider also these seven stories of being saved by the Rosary.

So let us entrust ourselves to Mary.

She has complete power to help us in every need. She is entirely willing to help us in every need. She was filled with grace not for her sake alone, but so that the overflowing of her grace could be poured out onto us.

She is our Mother! Our sweet, loving, kind, merciful mother. Our advocate before the Just Judge, our hope to obtain his Divine Mercy without fear! For as St. John says, “perfect love casts out fear.” Mary will fill our souls with that perfect love, for she herself is filled with it to overflowing.

The image at the top of this post, by the way, is from the excellent movie Ignatius of Loyola, during the scene in which St. Ignatius consecrates himself to the service of the Queen of Heaven, our holy mother Mary.