As Jesus was dying on the cross, He looked down at Mary and John who wept together at His suffering, and He said to them: “Woman, behold your son. … Behold your mother” (Jn. 19:26-27). With those simple words, He revealed to all of us that Mary is not only His mother, but the mother of all mankind. She is our spiritual mother even today, and she loves and cares for us in a deeply profound way. After all, she is wholly united to Christ, so her ability to bring us to Him is unmatched. It is for this reason that many Catholics choose to consecrate themselves to the Blessed Mother. They offer themselves to Jesus through Mary — trusting her as a mother to bring them closer to Christ.
St. Louis de Montfort once said that consecrating oneself to Mary is the “safest, easiest, and shortest way of approaching Jesus.” And that’s exactly what parishioner Asha Godfrey has found through her own personal consecration to the Blessed Mother.
“Consecrating myself to Mary has really taken a lot of pressure off of my prayer life,” Asha says. “In consecration, you learn that Mary knows your prayer. She will bring it to God. She knows us better than we know ourselves. Consecrating myself to Mary has allowed me to lean on her as a mother in a whole new way.”
Last fall, Asha joined a small group of other St. Joseph parishioners in doing the Marian consecration 33 Days to Morning Glory, and she says it has vastly changed her life and, in particular, her relationship to Mary.
“I did the consecration simply because I was invited to,” Asha says. “But what I learned was that I had no real relationship with Mary, and that has been a game changer.”
Asha and her family pray a nightly Rosary together, and she wears the miraculous medal as an act of devotion — still, she found that her personal
connection, her own intimate relationship with Christ’s mother, was lacking.
“Mary wants us to get to know her as our mother, and I hadn’t done that before,” Asha says. “I now run to her with my prayers. I offer them to her, and she takes the burden off of me and brings it to her Son.”
Indeed, just as our earthly mothers work tirelessly to care for us, Mary does so on a deeply spiritual level. She wants us to run to her, and Jesus Himself encourages us to do this. He gave us His mother as our own. What a tremendous gift!
The 33 Days to Morning Glory consecration is a simplified form of St. Louis de Montfort’s total consecration, and Asha says she would encourage all of us to consider doing it.
“It is a very powerful way to give yourself to Jesus through Mary,” Asha says. “It is a lifelong act of consecration to her. And I am learning so much about myself and about the Blessed Mother every day because of my consecration to her. It is a wonderful experience!”
If you are interested in doing a Marian Consecration, we encourage you to look into the
33 Days to Morning Glory. The book guides you through a 33-day retreat that concludes with an act of total consecration. You will be forever changed!
