How do You Consecrate Something to Our Lady?

O Lord my God, you have made your servant king although I am but a little child … Give your servant  an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?

I wrote yesterday that I am going to consecrate my “work” to save America’s democracy to Our Lady. 

That sounds high-falutin’ … but what does it mean and how do you do such a thing?

I could direct you to a plethora of on-line sources explaining all about it. I could also direct you to a ton of prayers of consecration that you could use. 

But, to be honest, I don’t think any of that is really necessary. I think these things make it too complicated. I’m basing that claim on my personal experience. 

My first experience with consecration came along before I knew any such thing existed. I guess you could say I accidentally consecrated my activities to Jesus through Mary without knowing I was doing it.

I was first elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives way back in 1980. A few years later, I got married. A couple of years after that, I learned I was going to have my first baby. 

My husband and I believed that the best gift we could give our children was a full-time mother. So I gave up my seat in the House of Representatives and stayed home and raised my kids. 

Sixteen years later, I ran for the same house seat in the same house district and was re-elected. I still remember how joyful the people in that house district were to see me again. One lady told me she had been praying I would come back, and then she looked up and I was walking up to her house to ask for her vote.

If you’re me, that matters a lot. I wanted to do the best I could for these wonderful people. 

So, after the election, I read the Scripture where King Solomon tells God that he is overwhelmed by the awesome responsibility of governing God’s people. Solomon asked God for a “discerning heart to govern your people, and to distinguish right from wrong.” 

I prayed a 54-day Rosary Novena, and, every day, I prayed Solomon’s prayer along with it. I asked God to use me however He chose to do good for the people whose lives he had entrusted to me. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but looking back on it now, I realize that I was consecrating my time in office to Jesus through Mary by means of the Rosary. The Rosary is a powerful way to pray to Jesus through Mary. 

Years later, I authored a bill that I felt had deep moral significance. I knew it would be tough to get that bill into law, for a lot of ugly political reasons. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I’d heard about consecrating things to Our Lady, so I prayed and told her I was consecrating that bill to her. 

My experiences during my time in office and with that bill in particular turned out to be a deep learning experience as to what it means to place yourself in God’s hands. 

If what happened to me is typical, then I would guess that it often leads you into conflict with the evil of this world. It also asks you to do things that a smart person who was looking out for number one would never do. 

I used to call it “being a fool for Jesus.” I was smart enough to know that a lot of what I was going was politically stupid. I got in a lot of hot water that, as I said, I was plenty smart enough to know I was being stupid to get into.  

But God used me in ways that I never foresaw or imagined. There were times when I felt like a ball player that the coach told “You go stand over there,” and it was a stupid command that made no sense, but I went and stood over there, because he told me too. Then, out of nowhere, the ball would come straight to me. 

That, in my very small experience, is what it’s like to consecrate something to Mary.  

About … I dunno … 14 years ago, I read St Louis de Montfort’s booklet, Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary. It intrigued me, but I didn’t follow through at that time. 

Then, I read a book called 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration.

I followed that book like a cooking recipe. On September 22, which is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, I knelt down in my home office and prayed a prayer of consecration to Mary that I wrote myself. 

I didn’t hear any bells ring, and there wasn’t any change in my life that I could see. I didn’t know for sure that it actually “took” until a few years later when I picked up a book about consecration to St Michael the Archangel. I immediately knew that wasn’t for me. I was and I am already consecrated to Jesus through Our Lady. 

When my mother died, I prayed and told Mary, “I need you to mother me now.” Again, I didn’t feel much of anything. But I know she’s there. 

My experience — and there’s a lot more than I can squeeze into a blog post — is that Mary is actually tougher on you than Jesus. Praying that 54-day Novena brought me face to face with my worst sins in a scalding and painful way that I truly believe was God, giving me part of my Purgatory now, in this life.  

The experience changed me profoundly. I think it was Mother Mary who interceded with her Son to give me that awful grace. 

So what does it mean to consecrate your work to save America’s democracy to Our Lady? It means that you are entrusting your efforts to Jesus’ mother to guide and shepherd you and to intercede with her Son on your behalf to keep you and what you do within God’s will.

It means you are placing yourself in the same position as the chief steward at the wedding at Cana who went to Mary and told her, we’ve run out of wine. 

She took the steward’s problem to Jesus, and Jesus would not refuse to do as His mother asked. He helped the steward. 

Our Lady is not a soft, my-baby-is-always-right kind of mother. She raised a son Who went to the cross, and she knew from the beginning what she was doing. 

She will get you to heaven, but she’ll do it by bringing you face to face with your sins and scouring you clean of them. True repentance is a grace and a gift. But it is not painless or easy. 

I know I am a totally insignificant player in our national drama. I have as much chance of doing something that will save our democracy as I have of throwing a rock and hitting the moon. 

But I’m an American citizen, and I do have a voice and a vote. I can’t change things by  myself, but I can do my part. 

I know that if I do my part in accordance with the will of God, that my actions will become pieces of the significant whole of His will. And His will is power beyond any reckoning of power.  

I’m not smart enough, or good enough or wise enough to know God’s will all the time about everything. I can delude myself and convince myself that the wrong thing is the right thing just as much as any brainwashed MAGA. 

I don’t want to drive the bus. I don’t want to be in control. I just want to do what God wants me to do. 

There is no better driver of the bus, no better help in times of great moral peril, than the woman who raised Jesus.

She stands beside her Son in heaven today, right now. She can —and she will — mother us the same way she mothered Him. 

So. How do you consecrate your work to save our democracy to Mary?

I don’t think it’s complicated. Just pray and do it. 

Then, get up every day and pray some more. Pray the Rosary. That is her prayer and it has great power. 

Then, trust. 

And get busy doing. 

Note: I quoted part of Solomon’s prayer for wisdom at the top of this post. You can find Solomon’s entire prayer at 1 Kings 3: 7-9. You can find the Wedding at Cana at John 2: 1-11.