Marian consecration, explained: to Jesus through Mary

IWhat Marian consecration is

Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort describes the devotion he taught as “a perfect renewal of the vows and promises of holy Baptism” (True Devotion, tr. Faber, p. 84). You give yourself entirely to Our Lady in order to belong entirely to Jesus through her: body and soul, your goods, and even the merit of your good works, for her to use as she sees fit for the glory of God.

The Church’s Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2001) honours this practice and names Montfort among its great masters, quoting John Paul II: Montfort proposed consecration to Jesus through Mary “as an effective way of living out their baptismal commitment” (no. 204). The same paragraph sets the guard-rails. The word “consecration” is used here in a broad sense; it is only by analogy a consecration to God. It should spring from a free, personal and mature decision, not a passing emotion. It should be expressed in the Church’s own pattern of prayer, to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, asking Mary’s intercession; Montfort’s act, quoted below, speaks first to Jesus, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, and then to Our Lady, into whose hands the gift is placed, so that all of it goes to Christ through her. And it is made outside the celebration of Mass, because it is a devotion and not part of the liturgy.

Its root is the Cross. Our Lord gave his Mother to the beloved disciple — “Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own” (John 19:27, Douay-Rheims) — and the Directory reads the act of consecration in the light of those words. To consecrate yourself to Mary is to do what Saint John did: take her into your home.

IIWhere it comes from, and the hard word “slave”

Montfort wrote his Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin in the early 1700s. The manuscript lay practically unknown for over a century, until it was found in 1842 and published in 1843. John Paul II read it as a young man and took his motto, Totus tuus, from it: Montfort’s formula is Tuus totus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt, “I am all yours, and all that I have is yours” (Letter to the Montfortian Families, 8 December 2003).

Montfort calls the consecrated soul a “slave of love,” and a modern reader may flinch. John Paul II explains the image: it is a matter of full communion with Christ, who emptied himself, “taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7, Douay-Rheims), and of following the Virgin who called herself the handmaid of the Lord. Paradoxically, he writes, this “slavery of love” gives the human person full freedom, the freedom of the children of God. Nothing here is coerced. It is love that holds nothing back, freely given, by a woman who remains entirely herself.

IIIHow the thirty-three days run

Montfort lays out the preparation himself (True Devotion, pp. 166–168). Twelve days, at least, to empty yourself of the spirit of the world; then three weeks to be filled with Jesus Christ through the Blessed Virgin. Twelve and twenty-one make thirty-three.

• Days 1–12: renouncing the spirit of the world. Montfort names no particular prayers for these days; the Consecration tool suggests some, with a short reading for each day.
• Days 13–19: knowledge of yourself. Ask for self-knowledge and sorrow for sin, in humility. Pray daily the Ave Maris Stella and the Litany of the Holy Ghost.
• Days 20–26: knowledge of the Blessed Virgin. Ask the Holy Ghost to know her. The same two prayers, and a Rosary daily, or at least part of one.
• Days 27–33: knowledge of Jesus Christ. The same prayers, adding the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus and the prayer of Saint Augustine. Montfort suggests repeating often, Noverim te: “Lord, that I might know Thee!”
• Consecration day: go to confession and receive Holy Communion with the intention of giving yourself to Jesus through Mary; after Communion, once Mass has ended (as the Church’s Directory asks, no. 204), say the act of consecration. Montfort asks that it be written out and signed the same day.

He also asks for a small gift on the day: a fast, a mortification, an alms or a candle, “according to the devotion and capacity of every one.” And he adds a line every busy woman can keep: “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” (p. 168). He asks that the consecration be renewed at least once a year, on the same day, and suggests renewing it monthly or even daily in a few words.

IVHow to choose your feast and count back

Choose a feast of Our Lady to be your consecration day. Begin the preparation thirty-three days before it, so that the thirty-three days end on the eve and you make the act on the feast itself. The feasts below are on the calendar of the dioceses of the United States; the date in parentheses is your first day.

• Mary, Mother of God, 1 January (begin 29 November)
• The Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas, long called the Purification of Our Lady), 2 February (begin 31 December)
• Our Lady of Lourdes, 11 February (begin 9 January)
• The Annunciation, 25 March (begin 20 February; 21 February in a leap year)
• Our Lady of Fatima, 13 May (begin 10 April)
• The Visitation, 31 May (begin 28 April)
• Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 16 July (begin 13 June)
• The Assumption, 15 August (begin 13 July)
• The Queenship of Mary, 22 August (begin 20 July)
• The Nativity of Mary, 8 September (begin 6 August)
• Our Lady of Sorrows, 15 September (begin 13 August)
• Our Lady of the Rosary, 7 October (begin 4 September)
• The Presentation of Mary, 21 November (begin 19 October)
• The Immaculate Conception, 8 December (begin 5 November)
• Our Lady of Guadalupe, 12 December (begin 9 November)

Check the year before you start, because feasts can move. In 2027, 25 March falls on Holy Thursday, so the Annunciation is kept on Monday 5 April (begin 3 March); and 12 December 2027 is the Third Sunday of Advent, so the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is not celebrated that year. The Consecration tool counts the days back from the major Marian feasts for any year and moves with the calendar.

If a feast is close and you are eager, do not rush the days. And if you miss a day of preparation, take it up again the next; Montfort’s own measure is good will, not a perfect record.