In Mary’s Hands
By: Hannah Rodriguez
As a cradle Catholic and a product of Catholic schools, I have known my whole life that Mary is important to our Catholic faith. I studied the Immaculate Conception, the Nativity, and the Assumption in my Theology classes. I could tell you countless facts about her life and role as Jesus’ mother. But all of this information only contributed to a static understanding of the Blessed Mother as the perfect role model. This distanced me from her. Why? I couldn’t relate to her. She was sinless, the perfect woman. What impact could she possibly have on my life? I looked on her image with dry reverence, devoid of curiosity. To me, she was just that, an image, without life, emotion, or depth. In short, she meant nothing to me. All of this changed one year ago, through my Marian Consecration.
I can only contribute my desire to begin the consecration process to the grace of God, seeing as how I was empty of true knowledge or love of our Mother. As I searched for a deeper relationship with Christ and true holiness, people in my life guided me to pursue Consecration to Mary in the form of the book 33 Days to Morning Glory by Michael E. Gaitley, MIC. In this preparation for Marian Consecration, I found a wealth of knowledge about the Blessed Mother that sparked a passion in me for fervent devotion to her. Guided each day by the spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort, Maximilian Kolbe, Mother Teresa, and Pope St. John Paul II, my heart began to change, my eyes opened to the stark reality of her intimate role as our Mother.
In John 19:26–27, Jesus looked down upon the woman who raised him, who knew him best, whose hands had touched his face more than any others, and said to her, “Woman, behold your son.” Then looking upon John, his beloved friend and only Apostle left at the foot of the cross, Jesus spoke the words, “Behold, your mother.” Behold your mother. Of the few words left for him to speak before he dies, Jesus chooses these, uttering a command and creating a relationship between us and Mary. In this moment, we become her children, and she becomes our mother. For all of time, she assumes the responsibility to care for us. In consecration to her, we put our lives, our holiness, our very sanctification in her capable, tender hands. We can do this with confidence because she is Jesus’ first and closest disciple. She has a unique relationship with all three persons of the Trinity: daughter of the Father, mother of the Son, and spouse of the Holy Spirit. As daughter, mother, and spouse, she knew and followed the will of God perfectly. In this way, we can trust that as she raised Christ, she can raise us to be like Christ, forming us into saints by guiding us into alignment with the perfect will of God, eternally pointing us to greater union with her son.
One of the surefire, unfailing ways she does this is through the rosary. Once to me a boring, mind-numbing task, it has become a source of incalculable life, beauty, and inspiration. In taking hold of a rosary, we take hold of Mary’s hand as she walks us through the life of her son, guiding our imagination with her experience as a first-hand witness to Jesus’ journey from conception to death, resurrection, and ascension. As his mother, she knows him infinitely better than we can hope to on our own, and can reveal him to us best. We stand in her shadow as she walks alongside her Son during His passion, and as he lifts his eyes to meet hers, his eyes meet ours as well. As she watches her Son suffer, she suffers, and through her, we suffer too. This intimate presence with Christ in His Passion draws us deeper into the mystery of relationship with him. And it goes both ways. As ever-present in both our lives and the Passion, Mama Mary acts as a conduit, to perfectly unite our own meager sufferings to those of Christ, for the salvation of the world.
To finish off, I want to give this advice to those who may feel stuck in their spiritual lives like I was: Marian Consecration is a sure way to consistent spiritual progress. Many people, including St. Louis de Montfort and Pope St. John Paul II, cite their consecration to the Blessed Mother as a turning point in their lives. If you want to know Jesus intimately, who better to lean on and learn from than the woman who walked with him his entire life? Devotion to Mary is devotion to Christ.
Our Lady of la Leche, pray for us.
