Consecration and entrustment to Mary
The consecration and entrustment to the Virgin Mary is a personal or collective act of Marian devotion among Catholics, with the Latin terms oblatio, servitus, commendatio and dedicatio being used in this context.
[citation needed] Pope John Paul II's motto, Totus Tuus ("totally yours"), reflected his personal consecration to Mary.
In the 12th century Cîteaux Abbey in France used the motif of the "protective mantle" of the Virgin Mary which shielded the kneeling abbots and abbesses.
[9] In the 12th century, the Cistercian orders began consecrating themselves to Mary, first individually and then as a group, and this practice then spread to the Benedictines and the Carmelites.
In his theological analysis, Marian devotions are categorized into stages, from beginner to advanced, as follows:[14] The theology of personal consecration to Mary was further explained by Pope John Paul II in Redemptoris Mater where, building on John 19:27, he stated that the word "home" refers to the spiritual and inner life of believers, and "to take Mary into one's home" signifies a filial entrustment to her as mother in every aspect of life.
For Montfort, consecration begins a gradual process of sanctification in which a person's focus turns away from self-love and towards God through Mary.
[18][19] Pope John Paul II stated that as a young seminarian he had read and reread Montfort many times and "understood that I could not exclude the Lord's Mother from my life without neglecting the will of God-Trinity".
[22] Two factors that helped the rapid progress of the devotion were the introduction of the Miraculous Medal by Catherine Labouré in 1830 and the establishment at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, Paris of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners.
In 1838 Father Desgenettes, the pastor of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, organized the Association in honor of the Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary, which Pope Gregory XVI made a confraternity the same year.
"[28] In 1854 Pope Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus.
[39][40] On 12 May 2010 at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Fátima, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto Pope Benedict XVI consecrated all priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
[43] In the 1917 purported apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, the Virgin Mary is said to have specifically asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.
[44] On 31 October 1942, Pius XII made a solemn act of consecration of the Catholic Church and the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, joined by the bishops of Portugal, gathered at the Cathedral in Lisbon.
[46][47] In July 1952 Pope Pius XII specifically performed the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary via the Apostolic Letter Sacro Vergente.
[53] This paralleled the consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Pope Leo XIII, discussed in the encyclical Annum sacrum of May 1899.
[58][59] During the ongoing conflict, on 25 March 2022 Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with bishops from all over the world to implore an end to the war.
[61] Those taking part included: All the bishops of Canada participated jointly in the consecration of the country to the Blessed Mother during the CCCB Plenary Assembly on 6 September 2017.
[62] The title of "Mary's Dowry" as applied to England dates back to Edward the Confessor, and was formally proclaimed in 1399 by Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Arundel.
Eight years before, during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the fourteen-year-old King Richard II of England had entrusted his kingdom to the Virgin Mary in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
That same day, a rite of consecration was similarly held by Archbishop Gregory at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
[81] The prayer originally composed by Louis de Montfort is as follows:[82] Today, I, a faithless sinner, renew in your hands my Baptismal vows; I renounce Satan forever, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, and will carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and will be more faithful to Him than I have ever been.
I deliver and consecrate myself to you, my body and soul, myself, both interior and exterior, and the worth of my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to you the total right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, according to your wish, for the greater glory of God in time and in eternity.
