The Apostolic origin of Marian consecration

Whenever I had heard the term consecration, it was always in reference to something – such as the bread and wine brought forward at the offertory in Mass – being consecrated to God. Wasn’t Catholic belief supposed to be rooted in Scripture and Tradition? I could find no reference to the practice in Scripture or any writings from the first centuries of the Church.(...)

That was when the example and teaching of Pope St. John Paul II opened my eyes. The Pope’s pure devotion to Christ was undeniable, as was his love of the Blessed Mother. I knew that he wouldn’t lead me astray, so when I discovered that his papal motto, “Totus Tuus,” was drawn from the words of St. Louis de Montfort’s famous text on Marian Consecration (True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary), I was open to hearing the Pope’s thought. He shared how “This treatise by De Montfort can be a bit disconcerting, given its rather florid and baroque style, but the essential theological truths which it contains are undeniable.”

The Pope also used the word “entrustment” as a synonym for “consecration,” connecting the practice of entrusting ourselves to Mary’s motherhood with Christ’s entrustment of John to Mary at the foot of the Cross.

What I had failed to recognize in my naivete was that when spiritual writers such as De Montfort wrote of being “consecrated” to Mary, they spoke by way of analogy. [Theologically–speaking, man can only consecrate himself to God.]

When we pray an act of “Marian” consecration, we entrust ourselves to her heart and motherly intercession and, united with her, renew and intentionally deepen our baptismal consecration to Jesus. Jesus, and not Mary, is the goal of our action. The Pope explained how Father de Montfort’s teaching showed him that “Mary does bring us closer to Christ; she does lead us to him, provided that we live her mystery in Christ.”

Adapted from Shane Kapler’s The Biblical Roots of Marian Consecration: Devotion to the Immaculate Heart in Light of Scripture (TAN Books, 2022).

www;catholicexchange.com