By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
Some call it old-fashioned, others call it unnecessary, and still others
believe you can’t get to heaven without it.
But no matter how individual opinions vary, the act of consecrating
yourself to God remains as popular as ever, and in the 20th and 21st
centuries, Catholics have had superb modern examples of personal consecrations.
Pope John Paul II put St. Luis de Montfort’s ages-old consecration
to Jesus through Mary back on spiritual radar screens with his public
espousal of vibrant Marian spirituality. And among other unnamed martyrs
of Auschwitz, the generous-hearted St. Maximilian Kolbe followed the
same path.
So did the modern world’s great example of Christian charity,
Blessed Theresa of Calcutta. And legions of others in today’s
society have chosen to live in the world as one of God’s “chosen
people.”
Consecration is one of the best known terms in the history of spirituality,
according to the University of Dayton’s Marian Library. In a document
titled, “What Is the Meaning of Consecration?” the authors
say the practice, which is also known as dedication or entrustment,
can be either personal or communitarian, and has a long history in the
Church.
“It has biblical roots, and became the quest of many saints and
spirituals through the centuries,” they say. “Martyrs, virgins,
monks are so-called consecrated persons. It was promoted in Spain [in
the 15th and 16th centuries] and became the object of special attention
in France in the 17th century. Famous names attached to the consecration
movement are St. Louis Grignion de Montfort, St. John Eudes, and St.
Margaret Mary Alacoque.
“During the late 19th and 20th centuries, Popes Leo XIII and Pius
XI lent their voices to the movement. So did the Legion of Mary, St.
Maximililan Kolbe and his Militia of the Immaculate, and the various
Fatima groups.”
Entire nations have been consecrated to Mary, including the United States,
which was consecrated to the Blessed Mother under her title of the Immaculate
Conception in 1792 by the Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore.
But what does it really mean to consecrate yourself to God?
According to “Jesus Living in Mary: A Handbook of the Spirituality
of St. Louis Marie de Montfort,” the term “consecration”
comes from the root word ‘holy,’ and means that a person,
place or thing is sanctified and made holy to the Lord.
“To be consecrated, or to be made holy, conveys the idea of being
separated from the profane through a sharing in some manner in the life
of God,” the book explains. “Consecration, therefore, is
the entrance into the holy, sharing in the life of the All-Holy One,
God Alone.”
But holiness can only come to us from God.
“God communicates His holiness to us; He gives us participation
in His holiness,” write the Marian Library authors. “He
is our creator and wants us to be in His image. This transformation
into His likeness is the foremost meaning of consecration.”
Our consecration is essentially a response to His call: “In acquiescing,
we bind ourselves to a consecration that comes from God. We consecrate
ourselves to belong to the Lord in a new way.”
Before the birth of Jesus Christ, those people who wanted to belong
to Yahweh entered into the covenant He made with Noah, Abraham and Moses
by accepting the Ten Commandments. That was how the people of Israel
became the chosen people of God.
But Jesus is the New Covenant, which we enter into through baptism.
“Christ imparts to his disciples and followers a very special
belonging to God. He gives us His own life by making us participants
in His own consecration. This happens in baptism. Baptism is our first
and most important consecration. … [T]hrough baptism, we do not
belong to ourselves anymore but to Christ who imparts his life to us.”
The practice of consecrating ourselves to God through promises, vows,
or some kind of special prayer or formula is a voluntary adherence to
what baptism has already made of us.
But what about consecration to Mary?
“Mary is not the Creator, she is not the Redeemer,” write
the Marian Library authors. “She is the opposite of a goddess;
she never substituted herself for God. But it was God’s will that
Mary had something to do with our Christian life, with our sanctification.
It is a role assigned to her by God.”
Participants in Vatican II called Mary “our mother in the order
of grace” (Lumen Gentium 61), a prototype of the perfect consecration
to Jesus: “She was chosen to help us in our consecration through
her intercession and her maternal care, which disposes us to receive
the gift of God we receive in baptism.”
Therefore, consecration to Mary is really consecration to the “perfect
means” that Jesus chose to unite Himself with us, and vice versa.
“Consecration to Mary heightens the depth and truth of our commitment
to Christ. Consecration to Mary must explicitly state that our ultimate
goal and end is God.”
This is how St. Louis Marie de Montfort put it in his classic work,
“True Devotion to the Blessed Mother”: “If devotion
to Our Lady removed us from Jesus Christ, we should have to reject it
as an illusion of the devil.”
The depth of our consecration depends entirely upon the degree to which
we embrace it.
“We must understand the connection between consecration and abandonment,”
writes the Catholic theologian and scholar, Father Marie-Dominique Philippe,
O.P., in “Mysteries de Misericorde.”
“On the one hand, consecration demands a certain abandonment;
and the more perfect the consecration, the more perfect the abandonment
must be,” he writes.
“On the other hand, true abandonment calls for consecration and
prepares for it. … For all Christians, abandonment is a fundamental,
evangelical demand, a disposition to interior consecration. …
Everyone can live abandonment, no matter what the circumstances may
be, and, in living abandonment, one lives what is most fundamental in
the evangelical law.”
Although consecration to God is already our privilege by virtue of our
baptism, millions of people have chosen to give themselves to God in
their own, special way, making a personal commitment that is cherished
by both God and man.”
For information about various forms of consecration, visit the following
Web sites:
• To Jesus through Mary — St. Louis de Montfort: http://ourlady33.com/main.htm
• Militia of the Immaculata — St. Maximilian Kolbe: https://consecration.com/learn-more.html.
Contact Susan Brinkmann at fiat723@aol.com or (215) 965-4615.