✰✰✰✰Marian Consecration✰✰✰✰

Mary in my back yard :)

~ MARIAN CONSECRATION ~ 

I consecrated my life to our Mother Mary several years ago. It was one of the hardest challenges in my faith yet. I did this with my small youth group using the book 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration. I have learned that Mother Mary wants to lead us to her Son. She wants to pray for us. She is the most perfect mother. If you have not been consecrated to Mary this is your challenge or sign to do it. The rest of this blog post will be an excerpt from a prayer talk I gave at a retreat early this year. This is part of my encounter with Marian Consecration and a little bit on why I veil. 

~SEEDS AND A CALLING TO FOLLOW HIM~

When I pray, the Father plants seeds in my life. I may not have the words to craftily articulate my plees, joys, and confusions but my heart is fully known inside and out. I began to desire a real prayer life entering my freshman year of high school. I knew there was more and I wanted it. I wanted to go deeper. I attended, for the first time, a youth retreat put on by the Diocese of Biloxi. *for the first time ever it dawned on me that I didn’t know how to “retreat.” I didn’t get it. Everyone was so energetic, carefree on the first day. Like they knew what was about to go down, given, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I now understand that all of those teens were so joyfilled and worry free because they knew that in that weekend they would have an encounter and our Lord would bring rest to their restless hearts. They had faith. They had open hearts. I too offered an open heart and it was filled in the span of three months with three seeds. One seed was altar serving. This one actually was planted before the retreat but nurtured at the retreat. Another seed was consideration of a religious vocation planted that retreat weekend. The last seed, planted after the retreat, was veiling. These seeds have made a special impact in my prayer life today. 

I’ve alterserved in my parish since I was a sophomore and I’ve veiled for about the same time. My alterserving led me into a deeper understanding of the mass and a desire to be more deeply devoted to the mass. Wearing a veil to mass was the answer to greater devotion and even discernment of vocation. I love the humility and modesty of veiling. Veiling also reminds me of Our Mother and her dedication to leading us to Christ, her Son. 

~ANSWERED PRAYER~

As I grew in my faith, I became more aware of my prayer life. Often, I get restless or frustrated because I don’t think my prayers are heard. I don’t receive an answer in my time. But I remember how when I doubted in the past the Lord answered me clearly. The summer between my sophomore and junior year I went to a retreat similar to the one I described before, but this one was in Homa, Louisiana and there were over 3,000 youth. 

I recently consecrated my life  to Mary but I was struggling with the concept that Mary really was close. I didn’t “feel” different and my prayer life didn’t really change either. I opened up to my youth leader and she told me about this consecration prayer to pray. It went “My Queen and My Mother.” I thought, “what are the odds that I already knew that prayer in spanish!” Later that weekend I went to confession with a recently ordained and unfamiliar priest. At the end of  revealing my sins to this priest he looked at me and asked, “do you have a connection to Our Mother, I can feel her presence here?” This priest knew nothing about my recent consecration or struggle with prayer and Our Mother. At this moment I knew that my prayers were heard and answered. Not in my time but in God’s.