Totus Tuus

The brief Marian consecration prayer Totus Tuus ("I am totally yours") is drawn from the writings of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673-1716) and was made famous in the modern Catholic world by Pope Saint John Paul II, who took the phrase as his episcopal and papal motto. The prayer is a compact summary of the entire Catholic theology of consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it has become one of the most widely prayed Marian invocations of the post-conciliar era.

Origin and historical development

The phrase Totus Tuus and the corresponding consecration appear in the True Devotion to Mary of Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort, a Catholic spiritual classic of the early eighteenth century. Saint Louis-Marie develops in that work a method of total Marian consecration: the soul gives itself, body, soul, possessions, and merits, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that she may use them according to her will for the glory of God.

The brief prayer Totus tuus ego sum is the verbal seal of this consecration. The longer form, drawn from the True Devotion, runs: "I am all thine, and all that I have is thine, my dear Jesus, through Mary, your most holy Mother." The shorter four-line prayer above is the form most commonly used in modern Catholic devotional life.

The Father Bergoglio who would become Pope Francis was personally devoted to a different Marian title (Mary, Undoer of Knots), but the phrase Totus Tuus is associated principally with the previous pontificate. Karol Wojtyła took it as his episcopal motto on his consecration as auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958 and retained it through his entire archiepiscopate, his cardinalate, and his twenty-six-year pontificate. The two letters MM (for Maria Mater) and the Totus Tuus phrase are inscribed on his coat of arms.¹

Theological structure

The four lines of the prayer compress an entire Catholic Marian theology.

"I am totally yours" (Totus tuus ego sum): the consecration is total. The soul does not give Mary half of itself, or its excess, or what it does not need. It gives itself entirely, in keeping with the Lord's word that "whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25).

"And all that I have is yours" (et omnia mea tua sunt): the consecration includes our possessions, our works, our merits, our prayers. Saint Louis-Marie develops this in True Devotion as the "holy slavery" of Mary, in which the consecrated soul allows Mary to dispose of all its goods (in the order of grace) for the glory of God.

"I take you for my all" (Accipio te in mea omnia): the soul receives Mary in turn as its all, its mother, its protectress, its guide. The consecration is reciprocal: we give Mary ourselves, and she gives us herself.

"O Mary, give me your heart" (Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria): the closing petition is the heart of the prayer. We do not ask Mary for things; we ask Mary for her heart, so that we may love Christ with the love with which she loves Him. The Catholic spiritual tradition has always understood Marian consecration as oriented to Christ; to Jesus through Mary, in Saint Louis-Marie's classic phrase.

How the consecration is made

Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort's True Devotion to Mary prescribes a thirty-three-day preparation for the formal Marian consecration: twelve days of preliminary preparation, then three weeks of structured prayer (one week to renounce the spirit of the world, one week to know oneself, one week to know Jesus through Mary). On the thirty-fourth day, traditionally a Marian feast (the Immaculate Conception, the Annunciation, the Assumption, etc.), the consecration is made by the prayer Totus tuus or by Saint Louis-Marie's longer formula.

Many Catholics who are not formally consecrated according to the Montfort method simply pray Totus tuus daily as a brief renewal of their Marian disposition.

When the prayer is prayed

Totus Tuus is prayed:

• Daily, by Catholics who have made the formal Marian consecration of Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort.
• At the renewal of the Marian consecration on Marian feast days.
• As a brief invocation in moments of difficulty, when the soul wishes to recommit itself to Mary.
• In personal devotional prayer, often at the start of the day.

Pairing the Totus Tuus with other prayers

Totus Tuus is paired with:

• The Angelic Salutation and the Holy Rosary, in the daily Marian rhythm.
• The Marian prayer of entrustment, in moments of urgent recourse to Mary.
• The Salve Regina, at the close of the rosary.
• The Saint John Paul II Novena, since the prayer is the late Pope's motto and the heart of his Marian devotion.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin (composed c. 1712, first published 1843). Pope Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater (encyclical, 25 March 1987), and Rosarium Virginis Mariae (apostolic letter, 16 October 2002), both available at vatican.va. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 963 to 975 (Mary in the Church and the order of grace). ↩