Consecration to Mary Enhances Devotion to Jesus and the Church

July 6, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Consecration to Mary Enhances Devotion to Jesus and the Church

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

Consecrating ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary and practicing True Devotion to her does not detract from our devotion to Jesus or our love for the Church.  On the contrary, it will purify and enrich our love for both Jesus and the Church.  We will love both Jesus and the Church with the love of Mary because our union with Mary through True Devotion unites us to her love for both Jesus and the Church. The first requirement for our consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the practice of True Devotion is that we offer to Jesus through Mary our Body and soul, all our goods both interior and exterior, and even the value of all our good works, past, present, and future.  Our “fiat”, our yes, to God is joined to the unconditional “fiat” of Mary to God, and Mary becomes our model of how to live the Christian life.

Consecrating ourselves to Jesus through the Blessed Virgin Mary begins with a decision to love Jesus as Mary loves him and to love Mary as Jesus loves her. In other words, we learn to love Jesus from Mary, and we learn to love Mary from Jesus.  In Jesus and Mary we have the best of models because no one loves Jesus with more perfect love than Mary and no one loves Mary with more perfect love than Jesus.

We recall that Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  By this people will know that you are my disciples.” This command of Jesus certainly applies to our love for Mary.  Jesus could just as well have said to us also, “Love my mother Mary as I love her, then you will truly be my brothers and sisters.”  With that kind of love we will be the living proof, as Scripture says, that Jesus is the first born of many brothers [and sisters].

The early Christians were known for their profound love for God and for each other.  Scripture describes them as being of one heart and one mind (Acts 4:32).  Just as it was with the love that the early believers had for each other, our love for Mary will make us of one mind and one heart with her.  As our love for Mary grows, our receptivity to the will of God will tend to become as Mary’s receptivity.  Our surrender to God will also tend to imitate the total surrender that the humble Mary had to God, and could proclaim, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word”.  As it happened with Mary, the Holy Spirit will descend upon us and enable us to nurture the Christ in our souls and the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Church, just as Mary in the flesh was enabled to nurture the child Jesus.  The nurturing of Jesus by Mary was not limited to the nine months that Jesus spent in her womb or to the years of his infancy.  Mary nurtured Jesus until he grew to his full stature as the God-Man, the Savior of the world. Then she continued to nurture his Mystical Body of which he is the head. Our True Devotion to Mary, as a means of consecrating our lives to Jesus through Mary, will help us contribute to the growth of the Church to its full stature, so the purpose for which Jesus established it will be fulfilled.  It will also help us to nurture the Christ within us to the point that we will be able to say with St. Paul, “I no longer live, but Christ lives within me.  The life I live in the flesh, I Iive by faith in the Son of God.” (Gal 2:20)

Read more by Deacon Antonio here

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Antonio is a retired deacon in the Archdiocese of Denver. Last September his wife, Maud, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of cancer. They were told that she didn’t have long to live. Since she is 83 years old, they decided to refuse the chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Last October they were sent to Hospice. They have now been there for 8 months. Antonio’s wife is not experiencing the symptoms of multiple myeloma other than the fact that she cannot move and has to stay in bed all the time. She is also in the last stages of Alzheimer’s disease. You prayers will be appreciated. Antonio spends the entire day with his wife.

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