Marian Consecration

33 Days to Morning Glory

by Fr. Michael Gaitley

Now is the time to consecrate yourself to Mary!  Using Fr. Gaitley's book, you read one page a day for 33 days.  As the back cover says, "It's time to draw closer to Jesus through your mother, Mary.  She's waiting for you.  She loves you.  She wants to help you.  This book is about letting her do just that.  What are you waiting for?  What are you afraid of?  Now, listen to your mother."

HOW THE RETREAT WORKS.

Every week of this four-week retreat (plus five days for review), we'll read about how one of our four giants of Marian consecration lived out his or her consecration to Jesus through Mary. The goal will be not just to read about them and their teaching but, like Mary, to ponder their message in our hearts. So, for 33 days, we won't be going through a long list of prayers. Rather, we'll do our best to spend all day, each day, pondering the day's teaching. (Or, if we do our reading in the evenings, we can spend the day pondering the previous day's teaching.) As we know from Sacred Scripture, this heart-pondering attitude is specifically Marian (see Luke 2:19, 51), and it's something we can do no matter how busy we are. Moreover, I've included a short prayer to go with each day's reading to help us ponder the day's lesson. And because our goal during these 33 days is to remain in an atmosphere of heart-pondering prayer, I've called this time not just a preparation but a retreat.

Of course, 33 days is a long time to be on retreat, and it just might happen that, despite our good intentions and best efforts, we'll miss a day (or days) of the readings and prayers. If this happens, we need not get discouraged, and we surely shouldn't quit! Instead, I suggest that we simply read the text for the days we missed as soon as we can and keep going with the retreat. The Lord knows what's in our hearts, and if our desire truly is to make the consecration, we shouldn't let any temptations stop us. Believe me, it's very likely that we'll face temptations to cancel our preparation. But let's not give in. Let's do our best to be faithful to the readings and the prayerful pondering for each day. If we falter because of negligence, let's tell the Lord we're sorry, trust in his mercy, make up the missed readings, and keep going.

The reason I suggest that we make up any missed readings has to do with the structure of the retreat: Each day's teaching builds on the next, and all the parts converge at the end to give a complete picture of Marian consecration. So, we surely wouldn't want to skip an essential part. Moreover, because this retreat is so structured, it may be helpful at the outset to briefly consider a breakdown of the four full weeks of the retreat, keeping in mind that the last five days are reserved for review:

Week 1  St. Louis de Montfort
Week 2  St. Maximillian Kolbe
Week 3  St. Mother Teresa
Week 4  St. Pope John Paul II*


Continue reading an introduction to Marian Consecration from Fr. Gaitley.