I am urging the readers of this paper to consecrate themselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary if they haven’t already in the past. Salvation, enjoying for eternity of the beatific vision, is something that only few will experience, Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:14: “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” St Paul in Philippians 2:12 reminds us, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”. He is urging us to consider with extreme cure and attention our Salvation, which is something that we should absolutely not take for granted. Jesus himself in Matthew 7:13 says clearly that those who will fall astray are many, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many”. Jesus also in Matthew 24:12 admonishes us that “[…] because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold”. St Peter in Peter 5:8 warns us to “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

So why should our response to this real danger be the total self-giving of one’s self though Marian Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary? There are a number of reasons.

St Paul encourages intercessory prayer in Thessalonians 5:25, and we are told explicitly by St James in James 5:16 to “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.” Marian Consecration enables us to abandon our selves to the most powerful intercessor of all, to the most righteous creature to ever be created by God (Luke 1:42), the mother of God (Luke 1:43), the Blessed Virgin Mary. When we are sick and we go to the doctor, the doctor can help us as much as we let him help us; if he needs to put stiches on our wound, we can out of fear push him away, get up and leave the hospital. This happens a lot with people who fear needles. What is necessary to be healed is cooperation, and the most radical form of cooperation is abandonment and trust. Marian Consecration enables us in the most beautiful way to tell Mary to work in us, that we abandon ourselves to Her, and trust that She will bring us safe to Her son Jesus. St. Augustine wrote “God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us”; our act of the will is fundamental, our cooperation is necessary, and for it is necessary for Grace to work in us to sanctify us as St Augustine says, it is also extreemly important to receive the graces of intercessory prayer and action.

Marian Consecration leads us to abandon ourselves in the hands of the one who will defeat our enemy, the woman who will crush the head of the ancient serpent, who will destroy the roaring lion (Genesis 3:15, Mary and Jesus will crush satan). If we are in the battlefield, and our enemy far stronger than us is coming running towards us, what do we do? We don’t run away, he is faster than us; we don’t face him on our own, we would fall defeated in an instant; we don’t seek refuge behind another weak soldier; no we seek refuge at the side of the greatest of warriors, the strongest soldier, with the strongest shield, appointed by the supreme general specifically to take down that very enemy who is coming at us. Yes we flee to the protection of Mary, the one divinely appointed by Jesus to protect us, “ When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” […]”

Through the Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mother we lose all our merit that we acquire through virtuous works and faith, all of our merits go to Mary, and all of Her merits go to us. Our Mother disposes of these merits as she pleases. Once we are totally Hers, we also share in Her merits; once we are Her property all Her merits are also ours. We become like little children totally dependent on their mother, we dispose of her riches and possess nothing ourselves. It would be absolute folly to refuse such an offer, doing so, trusting more in our merits than in the ones of the Mother of God. Facing judgement with this abandonment and share in all the merits of the masterpiece of God’s work, is surely the best way to do so.

With consecration we conform our very being to Mary. Not only we open ourselves to Her intercession, not only we share in the protection of the most powerful creature of all, not only we dispose of the merits of the Immaculata, but we also conform ourselves to Her. We will be led by imitating Her, the pinnacle of creation, to be the men and women God is calling us to be. Our sanctification will be “boosted” incredibly. We will mirror the Mirror of Christ, we will conform our being to the indescribable humbleness of Mary, the antidote to pride, the origin of all sin. It is by imitating Her as Her property in total abandonment that the rebellion of the ancient foe present in us will be crushed. Her Immaculate Heart is the closest heart to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by conforming ourselves to Her, we are seeking to love in the most perfect way a human can ever love Jesus; we love Him through the heart that loves Him and loved Him the most.

We will be at the total disposal of Mary. We will be used by Her in incredible ways, we will be used to evangelize to the coldest hearts, to console the darkest souls, to inspire the weak, and love the unloved. Who knows how to evangelize better than the human who literally, literally brought God himself into the world, and who started at Cana the public ministry of Jesus (John 2:3)? We are not anymore the steersman of our lives, we don’t hold the rudder anymore, but we leave total control to the Immaculata. Refusing this is absurd, it is presuming that we ourselves would do a better job with our sanctification being our own managers, than the most Holy Mother of God. Our lives will change radically, we will leave the driver’s seat to someone else that will do a much better job than us in driving us towards heaven.

Another reason to consecrate one’s self to Mary is that she, being the spouse of the Holy Spirit, is the dispenser of all Graces that lead us to Christ. All actual Grace given by God to draw us near to Him, all the habitual Grace that sanctifies us, passes through the mediation of Mary. So why not answer this Grace even more perfectly giving ourselfves totally to the one who is every day already giving us all the graces that brought us were we are now in our faith. As Jesus is the only way to the Father, Mary is the only way to Jesus. Mary is a wonderful mediator. God has already given every bit of our conversion, of our repentance, of our virtue, to us through Her; why, why would someone not answer more perfectly to the greatest gift of love ever given to man, Grace. Mary is this wonderful mediator of all of God’s Grace, which is ultimately what merits our entire Salvation.

Marian Consecration, St Louis the Montfort says, is not strictly necessary fo one’s salvation, this means that you will not go to hell if you do not consecrate yourself, but it is an incredible gift that we have to grow closer to Christ our King, and refusing it doesn’t make any sense.

But why is simple devotion not sufficient? Why not simply pray a rosary every day, wouldn’t that be sufficient? No, it is not if you aim to be the closest possible to Mary. It is settling for mediocrity, we are called in a covenant with God, and a covenant involves the total self-giving of the person to the other. We are called to enter this relationship of deep communion with Mary which will enables us to give us totally to God as she is able to and was able to do in Her earthly life. We need to live it in a covenantal relationship, because without it our love will be imperfect. What if you settled simply to call once a day the girl you really love, what if you settled to be with her and love her but without a bond of faithful and permanent self-giving, isn’t that little act of care sufficient to benefit the most from that relationship? No, you are really called to give yourself to her in the covenantal relationship of marriage, you are called to lay down your life and die to self in order to respond to her love. Avoiding Consecration is avoiding this possibility of amazing love towards the one who can bring you into an even more fundamental relationship and covenant of love with God.

If you decided to Consecrate your self to Mary my greatest advice is to read “True Devotion To Mary” of St. Louis de Montfort, by buying the book on Amazon (click here), or by reading the PDF file (click here), to then start the 33 Day Preparation to Total Consecration in the spirit of St. Louis de Montfort (click here). The reading of the book is not strictly necessary (yet highly reccomended), if one wants he can directly start the 33 day preparation with the link above.
There is a quicker and easier way to consecrate oneself to Mary, it’s through the 9 day preparation to Marian Consecration in the spirit of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, one can buy the book (click here), or print and read online (click here)

The following is my argument for Marian Consecration:

Informal Argument

1)      Getting to heaven is hard and damnation is an real and imminent danger

2)      Marian Consecration increases exponentially the changes of Salvation

3)      All people who want to be saved are people who ought to consecrate themselves to Mary

Formal argument

1)      If somebody wants to go to heaven with the least danger of losing his salvation, then he ought to consecrate himself to Mary

2)      You want to go to heaven

3)      You ought to consecrate yourself to Mary

Defense of premise 1 of the Formal Argument

1)      If somebody wants to go to heaven with the least amount of danger, then he ought to increase the most he can the probability of getting there

2)      If he ought to increase the most he can the probability of getting there (heaven), then he ought to:

• count totally on the most powerful intercessory prayer that exists,
• rely the strongest defender that God gave to humanity,
• share in the merits of the Immaculate,
• conform himself to the very being of Mary, the perfect model of love for God,
• give up his will to the total disposal of Mary whose will is in perfect communion with the one of God,
• answer most perfectly the source of the graces of his personal sanctification.

3)      If one ought to count totally on the most powerful intercessory prayer that exists, rely on the strongest defender that God gave to humanity, share in the merits of the Immaculate, conform himself to the very being of Mary (the perfect model of love for God), give up his will to the total disposal of Mary whose will is in perfect communion with the one of God, and answer most perfectly the source of the graces of his personal sanctification, then he ought to consecrate himself to Mary

4)      Therefore, If somebody wants to go to heaven with the least danger of losing his salvation, then he ought to consecrate himself to Mary

All to the greater glory of Christ through the Immaculuata!

Ed Da Pra