Marian Consecration was no easy task. In fact, I am wondering if I was undergoing a spiritual attack of some sort. Nothing seemed to be going right. The weather interfered. Confirmation classes I was teaching interfered. My own stubbornness, lack of understanding, and inability to love better interfered.
When it all came together and I got it, it was like a huge rush of Joy filled my heart, mind, body, and soul! I was somehow lighter, clearer, more…more me!
And I wanted to share this revelation with everyone. How could this power be out there, offered to us, right at our fingertips and have so few people chase it? How many of those people even knew this power was out there?
I bet most didn’t, not even good Catholics.
Part of that is the lack of knowing such things even exist. Another part, especially for our Christian but nonCatholic brothers and sisters, is a great misunderstanding of who Mary is and why she is so worthy of our love.
A year later, my heart was still singing. I’d hit hard times of course, some of them very hard and I may talk about them another time, but there was a certainty (certainty!!!) in God’s plan for life after death and in His unfathomably deep Love for mankind.
This is what I needed to share. To invite people in, I knew I needed to break down their stubborn insistence that we should not devote ourselves to the Mother of God. I say that without judgment. I was that stubborn person only a year ago!
First, Marian Consecration is not Marian Worship.
Too many people mistake a love of Mary as a Divine Worship of Mary. This is never the case in true devotion. Mary would be the first to tell us she is not worthy!
There is one Trinity, One God, One Divine Being who is Three in One, One Lord above all humanity. Humanity includes those, like Mary, chosen by the God of all for special roles.
Divinity lies solely in the Lord: God our Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit.
Mary does not save us, and we are unworthy of doing anything, other than believing and acting in faith thanks to God’s gift of free will, to save ourselves.
All saving comes solely through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. End of story.
But it is not the end of our story. The story of humanity continues. God’s Love Story for us continues. Our earthly lives are a continuation of the Divine Love Story God has for each of us and our embrace, or denial, of that Love story.
Marian Consecration is one aspect of the embrace of God’s Love for us. I do not believe it is absolutely necessary to Consecrate ourselves in such a way during our earthly lifetimes in order to be welcomed by Jesus in Heaven, but I do believe the sort of love is a way of growing closer to Him even before getting to Heaven.
Marian Consecration means Consecrating ourselves to Jesus because of His Love and devotion for Mary!
Jesus Loves Mary and wants us to share in and donate His immeasurable Love. No one else had the beautiful relationship the two of them did.
Mary, in her giving her fiat to the Lord, grew closer to the Lord than any other human. She knew Jesus intimately as her own Son. She would have changed His diapers, kissed His scrapes when He fell playing with friends, and watched Joseph teach Him the art of making something with His own two hands, of bringing beauty to a piece of wood from a felled tree, of bringing new meaning and life to a dead branch.
As Jesus grew, their Mother-Son Love grew too so Jesus could refuse His Mother nothing. Mary asked Jesus to perform His first miracle, changing water to wine in the Wedding at Cana.
Marriage is a Sacrament of Love, of two people uniting in heart, body, and mind. It is the only Sacrament two people administer to themselves. It is a reflection of the Trinity in husband, wife, and God in a Sacrament that cannot be undone anymore than a Baptism can be undone.
At the Wedding at Cana, Jesus said His time had not yet come and then did what Mary asked anyway.
He who is All Powerful, submitted to Mary’s will. His was not a submission of weakness but a submission of complete, perfect Love. Jesus’ call to submission at the Wedding reflects the wife’s call to submit to her husband, not out of weakness, but out of love and trust, respect and honor. Jesus’ submission is a reflection of the husband’s call to submit to God, not out of weakness, but out of free will and a desire to please the Lord, out of humility and love. Jesus’ submission is a reflection of our submission to trust Mary to lead us closer to the miracles that await, not when she is present, but when Jesus is.
In our pride-filled existence, we often forget the power of submitting to the right person for the right reason. We forget, or never knew, the immense power of submitting out of love. Jesus did this for Mary because she is His Mother and He knew her like no one else just as she knows Him like no one else. No one knows a child like his Mother. If we want to grow closer to Jesus, it helps to see Him through Mary’s eyes, inspired wisdom, and loving Mother’s heart.
Mary is human Mother, not Divine God.
Mary, in giving her yes to the Angel Gabriel, intimately took the Holy Spirit into her. She became the spouse of the Divine being, willing to carry a child of God. This cannot be done other than through the intimate act of a husband and wife or through the intimate, beyond human understanding, Love of God Himself. It is this second Love, a Love greater than we can begin to comprehend, a love even greater than the beauty of husband and wife joined intimately in a loving sexual embrace that allowed God to plant Himself in Mary’s womb.
When we consider what it means to be a good husband and to be a good wife, we understand that it means protecting and cherishing our spouses. It means we want others to see them as we do. We do not see our spouses as Divine. Anyone who has been Married for more than five minutes will tell you his or her spouse is no god! Yet, there is still a desire to have others charitably love our spouses. We want our spouses to be loved and admired by those we love.
If we, in our limited understanding and ability to love, want our spouses to be loved and admired, how much more so must the Holy Spirit, who is perfect, want us to love and admire the one who gave herself to Him?
Mary is the human spouse, not Divine God. If we want to grow closer to the Holy Spirit, it helps to see Him through Mary’s eyes, inspired wisdom, and submissive Matron’s heart.
Mary Knew Her Father’s Voice.
Mary was filled with fear when the Angel Gabriel came to her, yet as soon as the Angel spoke, she agreed to do what God had asked. This agreement came only because she knew God’s voice. She could not have so quickly overcome the fear of having an Angel appear and ask such great things of her without having spent time in God’s Word, in getting to know Him as protector, provider, caregiver, and yes, disciplinarian. She knew the Lord as Father.
Because she knew His voice so well, she was, not just willing, but Joy-filled, at doing His bidding. She had total trust in Him.
The Lord too was Joy-filled at Mary’s agreement. He had personally chosen her above all humanity to carry the Ark of the New Covenant into the world. He, who had set such high demands on how to build the Ark that would carry the 10 Commandments into the world, had personally created this child named Mary to carry His Son who would carry the two Greatest Commandments into the world.
Mary is the obedient child of the Father, but she is not Divine God. If we want to grow closer to the Father, it helps to see Him through Mary’s eyes, inspired wisdom, and trusting Matron’s heart.
When we think of the great numbers of people who have walked the earth since Creation, and we think of the only person chosen by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to carry Love into the world, how can we turn our backs on their choice? How can we not honor the one they chose? How can we not Love Mary with all we have?
Remember, when our Love is united with the Lord’s, it is not divided and limited to only one person. It is vast and eternal, powerful and giving. God is still God, but Mary is often the vessel He has chosen to lead others to Him. To love and honor the Lord best, we must also love and honor His chosen Mary.
I was alone the day of my Consecration. No happy family or friends accompanied me as they did the other celebrants. It made me sad, and yet, it also gave me time that morning to do what I suddenly knew I had to do.
That will come in my next post.
God Bless…
