The Essence of the Act of Consecration to Our Lady
Entirely for Service to the Church

The act of consecration to Our Lady contains the principal elements of the spirituality of living in communion with Our Lady. This spirituality is intended to prepare everyone who is living it to consecrate themselves entirely for service to the Church.*

Our desire is to build our service on the foundation of humility so that it may bear full fruit. In the formation of this virtue of humility, it is important that we are conscious of our spiritual misery and have a firm conviction of man’s particular dignity as a child of God and as a sinner who was redeemed by Jesus and filially adopted through the power of His redemptive sacrifice. Humility, as the acknowledgement of one’s own misery in the light of the truth of one’s elevation to the dignity of a child of God, opens us in a special way to the mystery of the redemptive sacrifice.

The deepening of the perception of our spiritual misery is a process that lasts throughout our entire life. This process requires, among other things, our renunciation of illusions about ourselves. It means continually seeing ourselves in the truth in order to see what we are really like, that is, to see what our image is in the eyes of God. It is not at all easy to see ourselves as God does, because God perceives us as His beloved children but, at the same time, sees our wretchedness and our sins – sins that were the cause of the passion and death of Christ.

It is necessary to admit the truth about our evil which crucified Jesus; however it must be accompanied by a deep conviction that, through the power of Christ’s perfect sacrifice, we are already redeemed. These two elements should permeate each other. The more we come to know our own misery, the more we need to be convinced that we are beloved children of God, otherwise we would not be able to humbly accept our own evil.

Only those who, in losing their illusions about themselves, reach out their hands trustfully toward the Father, and await everything from Him, attain this posture.

This brings to mind the poor in spirit to which the first Beatitude refers. A person poor in spirit is someone who has lost all illusions that he can find true supportin anyone or anything other than God. Such a person acknowledges the fact that all authentic support comes directly or indirectly from God. A person who is poor in spirit becomes God’s beggar,† the very ptochos‡ who, not relying on himself and his own merits, trustfully awaits everything from the Merciful God. A person needs to cooperate with grace in order to acquire the attitude of an evangelical ptochos and, through this, gain merit. He does not, however, rely on this merit. God’s beggar-ptochos wants to rely solely on the mercy of God and in Him sees the only way to solve his problems.

For some it may be very difficult to rely directly on the mercy of God. Thus those who find it difficult to open up directly to the mercy of God are given the opportunity to seek aid in Mary, because Christ gave her to us as our Mother and made her the Mother of the Church. Christ entrusted us to Mary in His testament uttered from the cross.§ By the power of these words, like St. John the Apostle, we have the right to live in communion with the Mother of the Church and to seek in this a chance for our union with God. On our path to sanctity, we begin to notice our nothingness in various aspects of our spiritual life. This manifests itself, for example, by the fact that it is very difficult for us to acknowledge our nothingness while keeping firm the conviction that we are loved as children of God. Due to this difficulty, the path of St. John the Apostle, through communion of life with Our Lady, is a chance for us because it allows us to uncover the mercy of God all the more fully. This path becomes an opportunity for us to live in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ through communion of life with Mary in order to finally obey His will, even to accepting death.

If we want to build this obedience on the foundation of humility, it will best be brought about by not crediting to ourselves the graces given to us by God. So Christ, in stooping down over our misery, gives us Mary and, through her, shows us His mercy. Thus we are entrusted to the Mother of the Church, and Christ allows us to invite her into our hearts so that she lives the Gospel in us and for us; she forms a complete image of her Son in us so that it will no longer be we who live, but He who lives in us, for us, and through us – just as it is written by St Paul in his letter to the Galatians (cf. Gal 2:20).

Imprimatur: Most Rev. Jose C. Sorra, D.D. Bishop of Legazpi
Nihil Obstat: Rev. Fr. Don Vito Pavilando, S.T.L., S.L.D. Chancellor-Secretary

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*The act of consecration to Our Lady entirely for service to the Church presented herein is the unique and definitive act of consecration to Our Lady in the Families of Nazareth Movement and encapsulates the essence of living the charism of the spirituality of the Movement.
† Cf. St. Augustine, Sermo 56,6,9: Patrologia Latina 38, 381.
‡ The Greek word ptochos, which is found in the biblical term poor in spirit, refers to the totally helpless person who is compelled to beg; see F. Hauck, “Ptochos,” in Grande Lessico del Nuovo Testamento (ed. G. Kittel – L. Friedrich), vol. XI, Brescia 1977, pp. 712-714.
§ Redemptoris Mater 45; Vita Consecrata 28.