A Mother’s Day for Mary

ONE OF the great spiritual tools I use when I am appointed as Pastor to a new parish is to invite everyone to consecrate themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

There is a lot of evidence for the power of such a consecration- one source is the Book Fatima for Today by Fr Andrew Apostoli it has many examples. Personally, I can summarise a consecration as asking Mary to do for me everything she did to raise Jesus (more accurately the Holy Spirit working through Mary).

If we are called to be another Christ by necessity we need to invoke Mary to mother Jesus living in us. As St Pope Paul VI said “The ancient Fathers rightly taught that the Church prolongs in the sacra­ment of baptism the virginal motherhood of Mary”. Thus the baptismal font extends the motherhood of Mary.

The prayer form I use is an updated version of the St Louis de Montfort consecra­tion in the book called 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr Michael Gaitley. It has over 2 million copies in print. Central Canberra Parish and St Thomas Moore Campbell will be making the consecration at all Sunday Masses the weekend of 11/12 May.