Traditional prayer
Act of Consecration to Jesus through Mary (St. Louis de Montfort)
O Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom! O sweetest and most Adorable Jesus! True God and True Man, only Son of the Eternal Father, and of Mary always Virgin! I adore Thee profoundly in the bosom and splendours of Thy Father during eternity; and I adore Thee also in the Virginal bosom of Mary, Thy most worthy Mother, in the time of Thine Incarnation.
I give Thee thanks for that Thou hast annihilated Thyself, in taking the form of a slave, in order to rescue me from the cruel slavery of the devil. I praise and glorify Thee for that Thou hast been pleased to submit Thyself to Mary, Thy holy Mother, in all things, in order to make me Thy faithful slave through her.
But, alas! ungrateful and faithless as I have been, I have not kept the promises which I made so solemnly to Thee in my Baptism; I have not fulfilled my obligations; I do not deserve to be called Thy son, nor yet Thy slave; and as there is nothing in me which does not merit Thine anger and Thy repulse, I dare no more come by myself before Thy Most Holy and August Majesty.
It is on this account that I have recourse to the intercession of Thy most holy Mother, whom Thou hast given me for a mediatrix with Thee. It is by her means that I hope to obtain of Thee contrition, and the pardon of my sins, the acquisition and the preservation of wisdom.
I salute thee, then, O immaculate Mary, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the Eternal Wisdom willed to be hidden, and to be adored by Angels and by men. I hail thee, O Queen of heaven and earth, to whose empire every thing is subject which is under God.
I salute thee, O sure refuge of sinners, whose mercy fails to no one. Hear the desires which I have of the Divine Wisdom; and for that end receive the vows and offerings which my lowness presents to thee.
I, N., a faithless sinner,—I renew and ratify to-day in thy hands the vows of my Baptism; I renounce for ever 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 you the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, to the greatest glory of God, in time and in eternity.
Receive, O benignant Virgin, this little offering of my slavery, in the honour of, and in union with, that subjection which the Eternal Wisdom deigned to have to thy Maternity, in homage to the power which both of you have over this little worm and miserable sinner, and in thanksgiving for the privileges with which the Holy Trinity hath favoured thee. I protest that I wish henceforth, as thy true slave, to seek thy honour and to obey thee in all things.
O admirable Mother, present me to thy dear Son as His eternal slave, so that as He hath redeemed me by thee, by thee He may receive me. O Mother of mercy, get me the grace to obtain the true Wisdom of God; and for that end put me in the number of those whom thou lovest, whom thou teachest, whom thou conductest, and whom thou nourishest and protectest, as thy children and thy slaves.
O faithful Virgin, make me in all things so perfect a disciple, imitator, and slave of the Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ thy Son, that I may attain, by thy intercession, and by thy example, to the fulness of His age on earth, and of His glory in the heavens. Amen.
About this prayer
St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673–1716) was a missionary priest in Brittany and the Vendée (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1910). He wrote his Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin at the beginning of the 1700s, but the manuscript lay practically unknown for more than a century; it was found in 1842 and published in 1843 (St. John Paul II, Letter to the Montfortian Religious Families, 2003). Frederick William Faber, a priest of the Oratory, put it into English; the act on this page is his translation, printed at the end of the treatise, exactly as his 1863 edition gives it, including words such as “Thy son” that Montfort wrote for every Christian.
Notice where it is aimed. The act opens in adoration of Christ, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, before it turns to His Mother, and it ends by asking to be made His disciple and to reach “the fulness of His age”; it gives the self “entirely to Jesus Christ”; Mary is the way of the giving. Montfort calls the whole devotion “a perfect renewal of the vows and promises of holy Baptism” (True Devotion, tr. Faber, p. 82), which is why the act renews the vows of Baptism and renounces Satan, his pomps and works, once more.
Some words in it need care. Slave: Montfort means what he elsewhere calls the slavery of love (p. 162), a free and total gift modelled on Christ, who “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7, Douay-Rheims), and on Mary, who answered, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1:38). St. John Paul II explained that this bond of charity gives the true freedom of the children of God. Mediatrix: the Church does invoke Mary under that title (CCC 969), and says exactly what it means: her motherly role “in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power” (CCC 970); all her help flows from Christ and depends on Him. In 2025 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, with Pope Leo XIV’s approval, asked for special prudence with this title: Christ alone is the Mediator, and the word fits Mary only in a subordinate sense, for her maternal intercession and her part in the Incarnation, never as adding anything to His (Mater Populi Fidelis, 24–27). Nor does “as He hath redeemed me by thee” make Mary a co-redeemer. Christ alone redeemed us, and He came to us through her: “God sent his Son, made of a woman” (Galatians 4:4, Douay-Rheims). The Holy See teaches that her consent had a real part in the Incarnation, and that calling her Co-redemptrix is always inappropriate (Mater Populi Fidelis, 22, 26). And “this little worm” is the language of the psalm Christ cried from the Cross, “why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Psalm 21:2): “But I am a worm, and no man” (Psalm 21:7, Douay-Rheims; Psalm 22:6 in modern Bibles).
How Montfort says to make it (pp. 161–163): after at least twelve days spent emptying oneself of the spirit of the world, three weeks of preparation, the first to know oneself, the second to know the Blessed Virgin, the third to know Jesus Christ. Then go to Confession and Holy Communion, recite the act, write it out, or have it written, and sign it the same day. Make some small offering, a fast, an alms, a candle: “If they had but a pin to give in homage, yet gave it with a good heart, it would be enough for Jesus, who looks only at the good-will.” Renew it at least once a year on the same day; and if you wish, renew it daily in a few words: “I am all for Thee, and all I have belongs to Thee, O my sweet Jesus, by Mary Thy holy Mother” (p. 163).
St. John Paul II wrote that his motto, Totus tuus, was inspired by this teaching, and that reading the book in his youth was a great help to him.
When to pray it
- At the end of the three weeks of preparation, after Confession and Holy Communion.
- Every year on the same day, to renew it.
- Daily, in Montfort’s short form: “I am all for Thee, and all I have belongs to Thee, O my sweet Jesus, by Mary Thy holy Mother.”
- Written out by hand and signed, as Montfort asks, and kept where you will see it.