Immaculate Heart Of Mary/Litany question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kathleen18
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kathleen18

Guest
What exactly does one do to consecrate oneself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? And why would I want to do this? I am currently in RCIA. Thank you. Kathleen
P.S. Do you have to have more then one person to say a Litany?
 
Last edited:
Hello Kathleen,I hope someone can give you the advice you seek ,
Godbless
 
Dear Kathleen,

Thanks for your questions – all good ones! 🙂

Since you are currently in RCIA, you have much to learn about the Catholic Church in general, so maybe those in charge of your program are trying to “lay the groundwork” before doing too much teaching on Mary. Some programs do that. The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes it clear in paragraph 418 (Part I of the Catechism on the Creed):
487 What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ.
Click to expand...
When one uses the term “consecrate” one means to set aside for a special purpose. So when a persons says “I’m consecrating myself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary”, they simply mean they are desiring to draw closer to her, and in the Catholic Church this includes a desire thereby to draw closer to Christ. Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary was chosen by God to bring Jesus into this world in a physical way. The Word became Flesh to save us. Our Catholic Faith is “Christocentric”. Mary, however, has been given to us by Jesus on Calvary and we honor her as our Mother and Model.

You may have noticed some threads on the Forum on Consecration to Jesus through Mary. This is a beautiful practice begun by St. Louis de Montfort, but there are also simple prayers of Consecration by other saints that are approved by the Church. Why would you or anyone want to consecrate themselves? It is really a matter of the heart, it seems to me. I believe God gave me a strong devotion to Mary after I learned to love Jesus and all the Church teaches, and that may be what you will experience or are even now beginning to experience. Take your time, however, and let the Holy Spirit continue to bring you into all the beautiful Truth of the Catholic Faith.

I hope you have a good leader in your RCIA Program, and perhaps you also have chosen a good Catholic sponsor who is also available to answer questions. If you have a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Compendium of the Catechism they are also great helps to growing in the knowledge and love for the Catholic Faith. I’ll give you links to both:

Catechism of the Catholic Church - This second edition is best - the glossary is a great help in back of book to explain unfamiliar words. You can use the Index to find much good infor on Mary too.

Compendium of the Catechism - this is a shorter version done in Question and Answer format. My husband and I used it when we were in charge of an RCIA group. The persons in the RCIA Program found it to be a great help, as well as the full Catechism.

PS You do not need anyone to pray with you, when you wish to pray any Litany.
 
Last edited:
First, regarding your Litany question: No, you do not need to have more than one person to say a Litany. If you have more than one person, then one can read the invocation part of each line and the second person can read the response part. For example, if the line is “God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us” then Person A says “God the Father of Heaven” and Person B, or Persons B, C, D and rest of group, answer with “Have mercy on us.” and so on down all the lines of the litany. But it’s perfectly acceptable for one person praying alone to say the whole thing themself. I do it all the time.

Second, regarding your Consecration question. “Consecration to Mary” basically means that you are giving yourself to her, that you belong to her to use as she wishes. Since Mary leads us to Jesus, it is a way of becoming closer to Jesus through Mary. It is NOT separating yourself from Jesus. Nor is it putting Mary ahead of Jesus/ God.

Many people believe that one gets a great spiritual benefit from consecrating oneself to Mary. There are long treatises and entire books written about how this is helpful. I just did a Consecration of myself to Mary several weeks ago because I have a devotion to her and I think this will help me by bringing me closer to her and by allowing me to receive more help and grace from her in my spiritual and daily life.

The following Wiki article has more detail:


However, since you are in RCIA, I would point out the following:
  • It is NOT necessary or required that you “consecrate yourself to Mary”, or that you engage in any form of “consecration”, in order to be a Catholic.
  • You can also consecrate yourself directly to Jesus, for example, by consecrating yourself to the Sacred Heart. See for example https://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/heart/consecration.htm
  • “Consecration to Mary” right now is a bit trendy, perhaps because of the recent Fatima anniversaries. While many Catholics are doing it sincerely, I think there are also people who don’t appreciate that it is a pretty big commitment and just say some consecration prayer without thinking too much about it. I specifically held off doing it for almost a year because I didn’t think I was yet ready for it. Always think and pray before you do a consecration of yourself to Mary or Jesus. Don’t do it unless you are really ready and committed to the idea.
As for “how you do a consecration”, most people use either St. Louis de Montfort’s original method, or the updated book “33 Days to Morning Glory”. Both of those methods take 33 days. I did the St. Maximilian Kolbe method which only takes 9 days. You do prayers and reflections on each day leading up to your consecration, which is generally timed to occur on a Marian feast day such as Immaculate Conception, Assumption, Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, Our Lady of Guadalupe feast day, etc., or it could be on Christmas or Easter. Once you do the consecration, you are supposed to renew it each year, so in 2018 I will be going through the consecration process again for my renewal.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top