3 Lessons I Learned During My Consecration to Mary

I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.

These words are part of St. Louis De Montfort’s consecration to Mary, which I participated in and celebrated today.

How does a former Protestant come to have a devotion to Mary? What does that even mean? These questions are even more obscure 500 years out from the Reformation, an event that may have seemed reasonable to the reformers but has since brought about unintended moral and theological confusion for both Catholics and Protestants.

One of these blind spots is the role that Mary and Jesus have in the Gospel. When we confuse the male and female gender roles it leads to either the elimination of one role by absorbing the other or the toxic dominance of one gender over the other — the masculine over the feminine (machismo; toxic masculinity) and vice versa, the feminine over the masculine (feminism; devouring mothers). Similarly, when we misunderstand the roles that Jesus and Mary play in the plan of salvation we either emphasize Christ’s role at the expense of His mother’s, or we feminize Christ to make him more relatable to women and to emasculate men.

Like many who continue to read this publication, I had a strong aversion to anything Marian. My wife was given a rosary in college, and I told her to throw it away. My mother had a painting of Mary, Jesus, and Joseph that I always thought was ugly that now sits above my fireplace. My wife told my mother we would take it, but I did not want it and said it needed to be upstairs and out of sight. Other anti-Marian behaviors were expressed, but these examples sufficiently paint the picture that I was not open to being a devotee to Mary. For the record, I do like the painting now!

That said, this past year I found myself reading the True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis De Montfort. With the preliminaries out of the way, here are three things that I learned during the 33-day consecration.

Mary is Not Greater Than Jesus

As a former Protestant, I overlooked the fact that Christ spent the majority of His life with one person, Mary. The majority of His life was not spent with the disciples but with Mary, His mother. Jesus’ time alone with Mary was 30 years. That is 10 times longer than His time with the disciples. Furthermore, Mary was present for the final three years of Christ’s ministry. This means that the only person that was with Jesus from start to finish was Mary.

Jesus spent more time with Mary than any other human being during His life on earth. But their relationship was not merely a formality necessary for salvation to come to the world. She is His mother, and He is her God. How can we even begin to understand this mystery? It’s no wonder the angels desire to look into God’s divine wisdom more.¹

Mary is not greater than the “I AM.” Yet, the one to whom the winds and sea say, “Yes, Master” would set aside His glory and submit to a mere woman, but not just any woman, a mother suitable for the King of Kings, the Mother of God. Imagine Mary saying, “Jesus, help me with this” and Christ, the God-Man, saying, “Yes, Mother.”² Do we fully understand the significance of this relationship and the mystery surrounding it? How can Christ humble Himself in this way and yet still be greater? Do we truly understand the depth of His words when He says, “Whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”?

But we must remember, Mary is a mortal, and for a mortal to merely see God’s face is a death sentence:

But [God] said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”³

The Lord’s message to Mary not only implies that she will see His face, but that she will be physically and spiritually united with Him; her body will sustain His body; the Son of God will be developed and formed by her womb, and He will still be God; Mary’s blood will pump through His heart, and in turn, His blood will flow through her body. The heart that gave our Lord’s heart life was Mary’s heart; she is the tree and He is the fruit of eternal life. This picture of motherly union is what St. Paul uses in Galatians 4:19: “My children, for whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you!” Mary’s union with Christ prefigures our union with Him, which is most fully experienced in the reception of Christ’s body and blood in the Mass.

Many Christians today have downplayed the miracle of conception and birth. As a result, they take for granted Mary’s response to the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Today, Christians see Mary as if she is no different than they are. Like the stereotypical “mean girl” in movies, many women today presume that Mary is just like them. Had they been born 2000 years ago, they too would have been a possible candidate for Mary’s role in salvation history; it’s a shame they didn’t make the tryouts.

While a modern woman might be tempted to presume their grace and respond to the angel with, “Cool, I guess I’m full of grace. Let’s do this!” it would be a prideful and sinful response. Mary’s response is divinely inspired by the grace that is overflowing within her. Her response is perfect because she is perfect, perfectly human but not divine. Compared to us, she is infinitely greater than us for there has not been a single human being more privileged than Mary in all of history. But relative to God, she is nothing but dust. St. Louis De Montfort, the most die-hard Catholic in terms of devotion to Mary, wrote this,

With the whole Church I acknowledge that Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of God is, compared to his infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is simply nothing, since he alone can say, “I am he who is.” ⁴

Christ Formed in Us

The greatest Christians in the world have all had a devotion to Mary, meaning that a significant part of their relationship with Jesus was understood through His relationship with Mary. This may seem confusing to the Protestant mind because they believe that humans do nothing once they get to heaven. However, when one reads stories like St. Bernadette, St. John Paul II, or my personal favorite, St. Maximilian Kolbe, a different picture emerges. We realize that in loving Mary as Christ did, we become more like Christ, not less. After all, we are to love what God loves and hate what He hates. If we don’t, we risk our souls. If we are to be truly formed into Christlikeness, then Mary must also be part of that formation in us. If St. Paul labored for Christ to be formed in us, how much more so Mary! Therefore, in the same way Christ set aside His glory and submitted to the Blessed Mother, so we also should consider the ways we can submit to her as He did.

One might think that submission to Mary is disobedience to God or some form of idolatry. But as one famous saint said, “What do you think she’s going to do, make me less like Jesus?” But on a more practical level, one can see how someone might think a devotion to Mary would compete with their devotion to our Blessed Lord; it does not.

The soul that desires to be like Christ should do what Christ did. Incorporating Mary into your understanding of the Gospel and your relationship with Christ unites you even more closely with Christ and His passion. To honor what He honors can never be sin, so long as we do not elevate what He elevates above Him.⁵ That said, we should be wary that we don’t dishonor or ignore that which God honors, or worse, hate that which He loves. To do so is certainly a mark that we are drifting from God, and will eventually call evil “good” and good “evil.” To treat Mary as merely a woman or worse, a sinful mother who was no different than you or I, is to take the first step on the road to theological and moral confusion.

Furthermore, to submit to Mary’s will is not to submit to a will other than God’s. In the same way that a child who obeys his sinful parents is submitting to God’s will through them, so we do the same when we consider uniting our will to Mary or a particular saint God has sent our way. When we consider Mary’s will in the life of the believer, it is merely another dimension of the will of God, and it was Mary’s will that was used to form Christ and prepare Him for His cross. What she does for Christ, she has proven to do for His saints.

When we seek to follow Christ fully, we realize that we ought to understand that Eve, who led the first man astray, has been replaced by a New Eve so that the New Adam, Christ, can redeem the world. Before Christ became a man, Mary had already been selected and preserved to carry Him, form Him, and suffer with Him. Similarly, if Christ’s submission to Mary was indirect submission to God the Father’s will, then it follows that our devotion and obedience to Mary is another way we can imitate Christ’s life on earth.

Mary and The Problem of Evil

The problem of evil is one of my favorite philosophical subjects. Yet, becoming Catholic has opened up a plethora of theological resources to tackle the problem both intellectually and spiritually. One that I did not expect in terms of deepening my understanding of evil and God’s sovereignty was Mary’s perfection and the sword that pierced her soul.

We often want to know the reason for our suffering. Is it because I’m broken, messed up, or not good enough? In a word, yes. But underneath these questions is an assumption. If I were perfect, then I wouldn’t suffer. However, when we look at Mary, the perfect human being who is not God, we realize perfection does not evade suffering, it receives it. This is true whether you’re the God-man or His mother.

We recognize that Jesus had to die for the sins of the world, and when we consider He was sinless, we often assume these to necessarily go together. He was fully man, He was also fully God. This means that there is a part of His existence we will never fully understand.

Mary is perfectly human, morally and spiritually, but still merely human. When Mary appeared to St. Bernadette she said, “I am the Immaculate Conception”. Only a few years earlier, the Church had declared infallibly that Mary was immaculately conceived; meaning, that God preserved her from sin to raise the sinless Son. The perfect man would become the Son of the perfect woman, redeeming what was broken, by both Adam and Eve, in the Garden.

The other important detail is that Mary told Bernadette, “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the next.”⁶ Compare this to what the Devil says to Christ in the desert when he tempts Christ to worship him. The Devil’s promise of wealth and power is essentially a promise to make Christ happy in this world but not in the next. All Christ has to do is bow down and worship him. Note, that Mary doesn’t ask Bernadette to worship her, but to merely obey.

So how does this relate to the Problem of Evil? We often believe that if we followed Christ perfectly and we were perfect in all our virtues, then we would have no suffering. If we just “did things a little better”, if we didn’t struggle with this sin or that sin, life would be way easier. But what we see in Mary’s life and the lives of the saints, is that perfection invites suffering, hence Mary’s words “I don’t promise to make you happy in this world, but the next.”

We see in the life of Mary a prefigurement of what we are to become in being fully submitted to Christ. When are one with Him, in heart, soul, strength, and mind, we know that we will suffer, but it is Christ’s sacrifice that makes our suffering redemptive. Anything good that comes from Mary is ultimately a result of Christ’s sacrifice. Christ was nailed to a tree and Mary’s soul was pierced. Both suffered, one as the Savior of the world and the other as the perfect disciple. Both submitted to God’s will; both said “Not my will, but yours be done”; and both suffered differently, yet perfectly, in the roles they were given.

The darkness hates the light, and Mary, the bringer of the Light of the World, is no exception. She is a reminder to the Christian that the more beautiful a life is the more it will suffer. Perfection is not a remedy for suffering, it is an invitation to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him.

Mary demonstrates these same principles by her silent example in the Gospels. Her life reveals that it is in following Him that we end our lives at the foot of the cross, uniting our suffering with His. Recall the words of Simeon and his prophecy over both Mary and Jesus,

Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted ³⁵ (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Lk. 2:34-35)

Mary, Mother of God, Full of Grace, Ever Virgin, Immaculate Conception, pray for us.

— DR.

1. 1 Pt. 1:12

2. We could discuss the Wedding at Cana and the Water Turning into Wine here, but for the sake of time, we will save that for another post.

3. Ex. 33:20

4. De Montfort, Louis. True Devotion to Mary, 150.

5. Rev. 12:1

6. Laurentin, R. (2000). Bernadette Speaks: A life of saint Bernadette Soubirous in her own words. Pauline Books & Media. 620.