Purpose and Power of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary
God ordered Israel saying “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.” (Dt. 6:5) This Deuteronomic verse is hugely instructive. The heart is the first object of our being with which we must love God. The heart is where we first give God a place in our lives. The heart is the part of our being with which we receive God. The heart is the dwelling of God within us. This seems to be the message we hear from Moses, Israel’s lawgiver. But it was on the occasion when one scribe asked Jesus to teach them which among the commandments is the first, that Jesus confirmed the prior Deuteronomic precept and the pre-eminence of the heart in man’s walk with God. He said “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, …” The scribe agreed saying “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one … and to love him with all the heart, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Pleased with the scribe, Jesus affirmed him saying “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (Mk. 12:29–34)
Perhaps providentially, we find two references to the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the canonical gospels and these two references, speak of her of her custodianship of God’s revelations, as she sojourned in her God-given duty of motherhood of the Saviour. The first was at the great tidings of the lord’s nativity; the second was at the marvel of the twelve-year-old sitting among the teachers of the law at the Temple: “Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart” (Lk 2: 19) and “His mother meanwhile kept all these things in her heart” (Lk 2:51). These verses depict the heart of Mary as a place where the word of God found a dwelling. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh” (Mt 12:34) The heart is the place where the deepest treasures are kept. In her own heart, the mother of Jesus kept God’s word. The Virgin Mary welcomed the things God said to her about her mission and the things God revealed about her divine son and made her heart a treasure-chest for them, where she harboured them and contemplated and cultivated them. God’s will and word were in her heart.
But even beyond cloistering, courting, contemplating and cultivating the word of God, the heart of the mother of Jesus, also became a place where the saving passion of Jesus found real expression. God so destined and so confirmed to the mother of Jesus that she would bear in her heart a painful share in the painful mission of her divine son. “Then Simeon blessed them and said to His mother Mary: “Behold, this Child is appointed to cause the rise and fall of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed — and a sword will pierce your soul as well.” (Lk 2:34–35) Here again the heart of Mary is referenced — since the sorrow of the soul finds bodily expression in the sorrow of the heart. The pain of the sword of sorrow that pierced the soul of Mary became concrete in the pain of the heart of Mary. The priest Simeon, himself, united the mission of Jesus to Mary’s sword of sorrow, so that the one is the reason for the other. The bodily cloister of this sorrow would be the heart of Mary.
The mother of Jesus is the only one that most closely and most directly shared in the harrowing passion of the crucifixion of Jesus. She understood everything about his son, even before the world had any clue of him. God told him whom his son was and what he came to do and he gave her fiat to be an ally of God in the project — the mission of salvation. When the apostles, but John, were nowhere to be found at Calvary, the mother of Jesus was there standing at the very foot of the cross. (Jn 19:25) Mary’s composure during the entire time of the ministry and death Jesus, shows that she too offered him up and only accompanied him in his mission, passion and death; thus, fulfilling Simeon’s prophecy of the sword of sorrow and making the hearts of Jesus and Mary, two hearts truly united in sorrow. Jesus is the word of God made flesh. His mother Mary, not only bore him in her womb, she also bore him in her heart. In fact, Mary first bore the word of God in her heart, at her fiat to the angel of the annunciation, before she bore him in her womb.
Thus, in the course of Christian history, the sorrowful heart of Mary, the word-treasuring heart of Mary, the contemplative heart of Mary, the God-conformed heart of Mary, the motherly heart of Mary, began to attract the scholarly minds of bible teachers and Christian apologists as well as the devout reverence of the Saints and the followers of her son Jesus. This is how reverence and devotion to the God-loving, word-treasuring, heart of the Virgin Mary was first conceived. Deeper understanding, reverence and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, thus began to grow as early as the time of the early Church Fathers, as evidenced in the writings of St. Ephrem (306–373) and St. Augustine (354–430). But it would wait until the 19th century for this devotion to be canonically established by Pius XII, in1942; who also made it a universal celebaration in 1944. As Gretchen Filz pointed out “Beginning in the Middle Ages, this devotion to Our Lady’s purity of heart began to flower, culminating in St. John Eudes actively promoting the devotion in the 17th century alongside that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He also worked to have a feast established for the Immaculate Heart of Mary, beginning in his native France.” (What You Should Know About the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in ‘The Catholic Company’, Aug 28, 2018)
In 1799 Pope Pius VI granted liturgical approval to the Bishop of Palermo for the celebration of the feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary for some of the churches in his diocese. In 1805 Pope Pius VII made further concession, thanks to which the feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary was soon widely observed in France and even beyond. (cf. Immaculate Heart of Mary, in ‘Religion Wiki’, April 19, 2022) Another boost to the devotion to the heart of Mary was the apparition of Our Lady to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830, which gave rise to the miraculous medal. On one side of the miraculous mdal is an image of the Blessed Virgin surrounded with the words, ‘O Mary, Conceived Without Sin, Pray for Us Who Have Recourse to Thee’. On the other side is an image of the Cross surmounted by the bold letter “M”. But under this are found emblems of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, laid next to each other. These images on the miraculous medal certainly served to confirm the devotion to the hearts of Jesus and Mary.
The many marvels that accompanied the spread of the miraculous medal aided the propagation of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The popularity of the miraculous medal robed off on the propagation of devotion to the heart of Mary, the proprietor of the miraculous medal. Following the growing popularity and practice of the devotion, on the 21st of July, 1855, the Congregation of Rites finally approved the Office and Mass of the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary or the Most Pure Heart of Mary for France but without establishing it for the universal Church. But this devotion was also quickly spreading beyond France, just as the miraculous medal was doing.
The practice of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary can be said to have acquired its present universal presence with the famed Fatima apparitions at Portugal in 1917. During the apparitions, the Blessed Virgin is reported to have showed to the visionaries, a vision of her Immaculate Heart encircled with thorns which represented the many sins committed against her — the same heart that bore the passion of the sword of sorrow which pierced her soul. It was at Fatima that the Blessed Virgin specifically requested that her children should consecrate themselves and their loved ones to her the care of her Immaculate Heart. She also requested that the nation of Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart — which confirmed the possibility of entrusting to the custody of the same heart that treasured the word of God, not only ourselves and our loved ones, but also our treasures and nations.
It was during the apparition of 13th July 1917, that the Blessed Virgin said thus to the seer-children of Fatima: “To save poor sinners, God wishes to establish in the world, devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” In response to this and similar request made to another Portuguese mystic Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa, on the 25th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions, in 1942, Pius XII consecrated the Church and the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart (but not Russia, as was specifically requested by the heavenly Virgin). In the same year, he also instituted the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the 22nd of August, the Octave day of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. On the 4th of May 1944 extended the celebration to the universal Church. And on account of Vatican II’s liturgical reforms, the feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was moved to the Saturday following the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so that the two hearts would appear side-by-side — Friday and Saturday — on the liturgical calendar. August 22nd became the feast of the Queenship of Mary, connecting Mary’s Assumption to her reign in heaven as seen in the 4th and 5th Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.
Following the request of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima and at other places of Marian apparition, the Church recommends to us to consecrate ourselves and our loved ones to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is one great way of ensuring filial connection and unceasing union to the mother of God and through her to the three persons of God. This is so, because, consecration to Mary implies belonging to Mary, the handmaid of God, the mother of Jesus, the virgin-spouse of the Holy Spirit and the unblemished daughter of the Eternal Father. Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary entails belonging to the same Mary who belongs to God, the same Mary who said ‘yes’ to God and yielded to his will. Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary signifies attachment to the mother of Jesus, the matron of the Messiah, the one who treasured God’s word in her heart and the one whose soul was pierced with a sword of sorrow because of the destiny of her son Jesus Christ. Marian consecration imports ‘connection’ with Mary, the virgin of Nazareth, who found great favour with God, whom God granted the gift of the fullness of grace and whom God declared ‘blessed’ among all women. Marian consecration means connection and union and filiation and affiliation and alliance and linkage and partnership with her!
However, we remind ourselves, that the ultimate goal of consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary is not merely to belong to the Blessed Virgin Mary — since she is not a divinity or a deity in any respect or reckoning; since she, in herself, is not a self-subsistent essence or a self-sustaining ontological substance or even a self-independent creature; since she too is a belonging of God, a creature of the only uncreated God. Unlike the uncreated, unsupported, unending God, our beloved Blessed Virgin Mary is not an absolute being or an autochthonous divinity; neither is she even an independent sovereign — since she finds relevance only in God and by God and since she reigns as heavenly Regina, only on account of her sovereign son — Jesus Christ, the everlasting monarch. Therefore, when in the act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart, we pledge to do all things through Mary, with Mary, in Mary and for Mary, we actually and truly pledging to do them through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus and for Jesus. This is because, we only go to Mary, so as to reach Jesus through her. We offer everything to Mary, only so that she would perfect them and offer them more worthily to Jesus, on our behalf. We belong to Mary, only because she belongs to Jesus.
Marian consecration is thus, always and in essence, Godcentric, Christcentric and Spiritcentric. But since, as St. Louis de Montfort says, Mary is the ‘perfect way’, we seek to go by her, to reach, more worthily and more speedily, our all-holy, all-perfect God. Marian consecration is to go to God through the Marian connection, through the Marian way, through the way of Mary. We do so, because Mary is the perfect way to God. It was God himself who showed us that Mary is the perfect way — since it was the way God, who does everything the perfect way, followed to reach mankind in the definitive work of the incarnation and salvation. It was God himself who first went through the way of Maria, the Marian way. It was God himself who first profited from the Marian connection. It is from God that we learn that what is placed in the hands of the Virgin Mary is safe and secured and saved. The Virgin Mary is so conformed to God and so consecrated to God that only God is what is found in her. The Virgin Mary is so full of grace and so overshadowed by God, so much so that whoever and whatever belongs to her, belongs by default, to God; whatever is placed in her care or ownership, enjoys too, God’s favour.
But what advantage does the consecration to the Immaculate Heart bring to us? What good does it do? Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary obtains for us the help of the mother of God in offering ourselves to God. It empowers her to conduct us, like her own children to her divine so. When we are consecrated to the Immaculate Heart, the Virgin Mary becomes the one who leads us to Jesus and the one who presents our offerings and needs to him. The power of the Marian consecration transforms our tainted works of charity, spiritual exercises, pious aspirations and prayers into meritorious oblations before the sublimity of God. In this way, the Marian consecration renders our virtuous works and spiritual activities, even more efficacious, acceptable and pleasing to the Most Holy Trinity. The grace of consecration to Mary capacitates us before the throne of God; since it enables us no longer to depend on our own merits alone or to stand in our own name, but to depend on the merits and stand in the name of the mother of God.
Marian consecration is more than a form of spiritual motherhood over us by the mother of God — which we more or less gain by belonging to Jesus her son. The Virgin Mary does not become our mother on account of our act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart. She is our mother on account of our brotherhood in Christ. Marian consecration is rather a spiritual form of further enlisting the agency, advocation and aid of the mother of God, as we, in fear and trembling, endeavour to work out our salvation, during our earthly pilgrimage, in our journey towards God and towards our heavenly homeland. Marian consecration can be likened to a form of deeper spiritual filiation or affiliation, a form of deeper spiritual adoption or appropriation, or even a form of deeper spiritual fostering or custodianship, with the Virgin Mary, which authorises and activates her special intervention on our behalf and guarantees us a special belonging to her and a special place in her Immaculate Heart. Marian consecration is therefore a personal, particular and purposeful act; it is a deliberate, specific and responsible act; it is not common or communal nor apathetic or unresponsive. Marian consecration is like a trigger that activates the privileges of the Marian connection.
Michael Richmond Duru
24th May 2022
https://michaelrichmondduru.medium.com/subscribe
