Day 8: Total Consecration

The eighth day of the Immaculate Conception Novena turns to the Catholic devotion most directly associated with the Mother of God under her Immaculate title: total consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The devotion was developed in its modern form by Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort (1673-1716) in his True Devotion to Mary and has been promoted by every major modern pope. The eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is, in the traditional Catholic calendar, an especially fitting moment for making or renewing this consecration.

Today's invocation

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus and our Mother... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The Catholic theology of consecration to Mary, treated more fully in the Totus Tuus prayer entry, holds that the Catholic soul can give itself entirely (body, soul, possessions, merits, prayers, sufferings) to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that she may use them according to her will for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The consecration is not the worship of Mary (the worship of latria belongs to God alone) but the trustful surrender of the soul to the Mother whom the Lord has given us, that she may exercise her maternal mediation more fully in the consecrated soul.

Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort developed the formal method of consecration in True Devotion to Mary: a thirty-three-day preparation (twelve days of preliminary preparation, followed by three weeks of structured Marian prayer and reading), culminating in the formal Act of Consecration on the thirty-fourth day. The traditional Catholic dates for the consecration are Marian feast days; the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (8 December) is one of the most common dates, with the preparation begun on 5 November.

Pope Saint John Paul II, who took the Totus Tuus phrase as his episcopal and papal motto, was a Catholic exemplar of the Montfort consecration in the modern era. His consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1984 (in fulfillment of the Fatima request) and his lifelong Marian discipline were grounded in the Montfort tradition. Pope Francis has continued the Catholic emphasis on Marian consecration, particularly in connection with the Catholic family.

Today's intention

Today, if you have not yet made a formal Marian consecration, consider making one in connection with this novena. The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (one day from now) is a fitting moment for the consecration. A simple formula, drawn from the Montfort tradition, may be prayed today as a consecration:

Most Holy Virgin Mary, Immaculate Conception, I consecrate myself today to your Immaculate Heart. I give to you my body and my soul, my goods and my prayers, my joys and my sufferings, my whole life. Receive me as your child. Use me as you will, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Through you and with you, I belong to your Son Jesus Christ forever. Amen.

If you have already made a Marian consecration in earlier years, today is a fitting moment to renew it.

Reflection

The Catholic spiritual tradition has long observed that the Marian consecration is one of the most fruitful disciplines of the modern Catholic life. The soul that has formally consecrated itself to Mary lives differently. The morning prayer takes on a new character (it begins from the consecration). The reception of the sacraments takes on a new character (the consecrated soul approaches the altar through Mary's mediation). The daily Catholic disciplines take on a new character (they are now lived in the company of the Mother who has accepted the soul as her child).

The novena's eighth day, on the eve of the Solemnity, is a natural Catholic occasion for the Marian consecration. The Catholic faithful who have prayed the novena faithfully through the past seven days have been gradually formed in the disposition of confidence in Mary that the consecration requires; the consecration is the Catholic seal on what the novena has been doing.

Closing prayers

Pray three Hail Marys in honor of the Immaculate Conception.

O Mary, conceived without sin, I am totally yours, and all that I have is yours. Pray for us who have recourse to thee.