Saint Michael Center - Catholic Teachings

Towards an Understanding of Total Consecration

St. Maximilian liked to use the metaphors of nature and science in teaching his theology, for example: For every action in nature (or super-nature) there is a proportionate reaction. The harder you hit a hammer or a ball and the closer you come to fire or light, the more intense is the result. He called this flux and reflux. Spiritually applied, there is an ebb and flow of love from and to the Trinity.

In the Letter to the Church at Ephesus we read, “He predestined us through Jesus Christ to be his adopted sons” (chapter 1). “You were sealed with the Holy Spirit who had been promised” (chapter 1). “Both with and in Christ Jesus [God] raised us up and gave us a place in the heavens” (chapter 2). “Through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (chapter 2). “Each of us has received God’s favor in the measure in which Christ bestows it” (chapter 4). Note our relationship with the Trinity.

In the Trinity’s creation, redemption and sanctification of mankind, as the above texts reads, God’s love flows out to us, mediated by Christ. Then the Holy Spirit, whose divine task it is to form Jesus in the Christian assembly, the Word of Scriptures and individual souls, as he first formed Jesus in the womb of the Virgin, forms the image of Jesus within us as our “passport picture,” as it were, to heaven. This conformation to Christ is what enables us to please the Father and return love for love. Because the reaction returns by the same route as the initial action of God loving us first, loving acts are presented to the Trinity by the Immaculate, as Kolbe clearly teaches. Once more in Ephesians we read, “[In Christ you] become a dwelling place for God in the Holy Spirit” (chapter 2).

Jesus told Nicodemus in the Gospel that he had to be reborn to belong to God’s kingdom. Nicodemus’ thinking was very earthbound, because he thought he would have to re-enter his mother’s womb. Now this rebirth means remade into the likeness of Jesus-which is a proper definition of sanctifying grace, God’s life in the soul. Maximilian teaches that the same mother who bore Christ through her spouse, the Holy Spirit, bears us as the continuation of her motherhood. This takes place with total consecration.

Any doctrine which ordinary, unschooled persons cannot understand, is probably not worth studying-except by academics and ivory tower theologians-because it has lost its kerygmatic dimension, that is, its “preachability” and practicality. This is not being anti-intellectual, but reflects in St. Maximilian a Franciscan bias that unapplied theology is unproductive knowledge, and empty possession of the mind! Thus total consecration is the practical application of the Immaculate Conception. We try to incorporate the mystery of Mary into our daily lives and work.

Total consecration begins with one’s profoundly personal relationship with the Immaculate. The imitation of Mary requires us to be militant Catholics, striving according to our means and talents to spread the good word about Mary and imbue every group in the Church-sodalities, prayer groups, parish councils, arts and crafts clubs, etc.-with the same sprit of total consecration.

Because Mary has no block to God’s action through her and thus her will is the same as God’s, she communicates this power to consecrated souls.

Fr. Dominic Szymanski, OFM CONV, the founder of this Marytown, used the following simple comparison, which anyone can understand. If you wanted to give an apple to a king, you might fear that the gift would be unattractive, soiled or even worm-eaten. But if you were the special servant or friend of the queen, she could polish the apple, chill it and serve it on a tray with a napkin, in order that the king find it acceptable. This homely metaphor suggests the intercessory power of Mary.

By total consecration we share in her Immaculate Conception-which is not difficult to accept inasmuch as we share in something even greater, namely, the very life of God! Jesus’ redemption includes Mary; his mediation is for all persons. To paraphrase Duns Scotus’ theology in very simple terms, by our inheritance of original sin we fall into a mud puddle. Through his death on the cross Jesus, as it were, hosed the mud off us. But in redeeming Mary he led her around or over the mud puddle-a more perfect redemption-so that she was saved ‘ahead of time” in view of the foreseen merits of Jesus on the cross. She shares with us her perfect disposition to serve God that we lack. In the latter days, the end-time, Mary will finally crush the serpent, Satan, by these consecrated souls. The very difficulty some have in accepting Mary’s role in the ebb and flow of love from and to the Trinity may lose them the grace of perseverance required in those difficult days! The Militia of the Immaculate may very well be the means of sharing in her power to crush Lucifer’s hosts. We have the Gospel warning of Jesus in Matthew 24:12 about the “end-time”: “Because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold.” Succinctly stated, Jesus’ mediation is for all, including Mary; Mary’s intercession is for us, sinful humanity, as we are conformed to Christ.

The Franciscan Order, of which Maximilian was always a loyal member, describes its corporate spirituality precisely as conformity to Christ. St. Francis’ favorite place on earth was Mary’s chapel of the Portiuncula, where he learned about conformity to Jesus, which culminated in the stigmata. St. Bonaventure even taught that the Order was established through Mary’s agency.

St. Francis taught the friars to be “minors,” that is, unimportant people, and to “expropriate” themselves. In his Rule he did not call the vow “poverty,” but said to love “without anything of their own.” Total consecration is, therefore, derived from the Order’s Marian insights: to let go, be emptied out and belong to her!

Maximilian merely carried St. Francis’ ideas to their ultimate conclusion and meaning. The latter said that we must become the “mothers” of Christ and bear him to the world. To be such a “mother,” Maximilian said, we must become mini-immaculate-conceptions. Her virginity becomes our purity. Her self-emptying in surrendering her claim to Jesus becomes our poverty of spirit. Her obedience becomes our submission to the Most High.

In Maximilian’s act of total consecration he calls us to be Mary’s “possession and property.” We know about possession by the devil, because this appears in the Gospel exorcisms by Jesus. In our consecration we ask to be possessed by Mary, invested by the Holy Spirit, just as he penetrated her being. Then we are to become her “property,” that is, her instrument for bringing about the Kingdom of her Son. We are thus comparable to musical instruments played by the hands of Mary. Similarly in 1943 Pope Pius XII in Divino Afflante Spiritu wrote that the sacred writer was like a musical instrument endowed with reason, but still using his own faculties. In total consecration there is an analogy: we use our faculties but are inspired and in some sense protected from error by the Immaculate.

Nevertheless by total consecration we affirm God’s supreme power over us. With Mary we reverse diabolical disobedience, that denial of God’s authority over creatures. When we over come the wiles and snares of Lucifer, we share in Mary’s crushing the head of the evil one.

A multiplicity of commandments and regulations are typically ineffective in making us holy; this is our common experience. We need to engage all our personal human resources in an intimate, loving relationship with Mary. Where such records are available, there was never a recorded saint who did not have a tender regard for Mary and generally a close spiritual bond. To cherish her, wrote St. Alphonsus Liguori, is a sign of predestination to eternal life.

You make the total consecration once and it lasts forever - even into eternity - as long as you do not revoke it deliberately and consciously. And who would be so foolish to break a relationship with God’s own mother? The meaning is this: you belong to her “lock, stock and barrel,” so that prayers, even Masses offered for your eternal repose after death, are hers to dispose of as she sees fit. This is quite a commitment. In fact, you take a risk of faith that total consecration ultimately wins greater benefits over the long run!

Naturally this consecration is more effective and beneficial in your spiritual life to increase your intimacy with Mary if you renew your consecration daily - at a time when you are less likely to forget it. I have witnessed two weddings recently during which the young couples went to Mary’s altar - they were already consecrated - and renewed their consecration. This means, of course, that their children, the fruit of their love, belong to Mary as well.

A theological point might be well made in this matter. Mary’s mediation occurs by the will of God, as we just explained. It is “automatic,” the process of the ebb and flow of divine and human love. Mary is always forming Jesus in souls. But when we invest ourselves in this process of transformation through Mary, we make immeasurably greater progress. It is like coming closer to the source of light and fire. One is illuminated and warmed according to the proximity to light and fire. So we share in her Immaculate Conception - and ultimately in God’s life - according to our closeness. Maximilian, like St. Frances, tells us we must become other “Marys,” other “immaculate conceptions” St. Paul mentioned in a letter that his readers had only “one father in Christ” - a totally spiritual concept, so Maximilian simply extended the ideas of Paul and Francis.

In the Letter to Timothy St. Paul noted that we are stewards of the divine mysteries and dispensers of the grace of God. Clearly no one could dispense grace and penetrate divine mysteries better than Jesus’ perfect disciple, Mary.

All persons are saved in some way through the Church, which is the chief sacrament of Christ, that is, a visible entity that produces grace. We recall that Mary is the “type” or model of the Church, the bride of Christ “without spot or wrinkle.” St. Ambrose, writing already in the fourth century A.D, declared that whatever is said of Mary may be said of the Church and whatever is said of the Church may be attributed to Mary. Hence, for all these testimonies of the past centuries it is not difficult to “prove” (for those who require proof) that total consecration is the logical extension, application and reinforcement of the consistent tradition and teachings of the Church. Do not let these ideas remain fallow and unproductive, but renew your consecration to Mary and your commitment to Jesus Christ!

This article is excerpted from "Maximilian Kolbe: Authentic Franciscan" by Fr. Anselm W. Romb, OFM CONV, published by Prow Books / Franciscan Marytown Press.

St. Maximilian Kolbe Shrine invites you to participate in the Novena to St. Maximilian Kolbe conducted at Marytown every Monday, and to send them your specific intentions. The Mass and the evening service will be offered for the intentions of all those enrolled in the novena, along with the central intention for the evangelization of the whole world and of our own country in particular. If you cannot be present for either, we urge and invite you to join us in spirit by reciting the novena prayers at home. God will bless you abundantly through this contemporary saint’s marvelous intercession, but you have to ask before you will receive. You may enroll yourself and friends in the Perpetual Novena at the Shrine.

St. Maximilian Kolbe Shrine,

Conventual Franciscan Friars of Marytown

1600 W. Park Avenue, Libertyville, Ill 60048

(708)367-7800

-by Fr. Anselm Romb, OFM CONV

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St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do you, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

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