This form of consecration has a different meaning than what happens at Holy Mass. Consecration means “to set aside for a sacred purpose”. Therefore consecrating yourself means putting yourself aside to love and serve God. You could then ask why would someone consecrate themself to Mary and/or St. Joseph when they could just as well go directly to God? St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Saint John Paul II and many other saints say that Mary consecrated her entire life to loving and serving God and their only Son, Jesus Christ! She can show each of us how to “love and serve God perfectly in our everyday lives”. Consecrating yourself helps you to grow in faith, love and hope for God.
We have many consecration prayers of varying lengths and to various saints, but the one thing they all have in common is that they lead us to Jesus. All of them direct to God Alone.
I, ___________, a repentant sinner, renew and ratify today into your hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism. I renounce Satan and resolve to follow Jesus Christ even more closely than before.
Mary, I give you my heart. Please set it on fire with love for Jesus. Make it always attentive to His burning thirst for love and for souls. Keep my heart in your most pure Heart that I may love Jesus and the members of His Body with your own perfect love.
Mary, I entrust myself totally to you: my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions. Please make of me, of all that I am and have, whatever most pleases you. Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for bringing the greatest possible glory to God. If I fall, please lead me back to Jesus. Wash me in the blood and water that flow from His pierced side, and help me to never lose my trust in this fountain of love and mercy.
With you, O Immaculate Mother—you who always do the will of God—I unite myself to the perfect consecration of Jesus as He offers Himself in the Spirit to the Father for the life of the world. Amen.
from “33 Days to Morning Glory” by Michael E. Gaitley, MIC
Shorter Daily Renewal
Mary, my Mother, I give myself totally to you as my possession and property. Please make of me, all that I am and have, whatever most pleases you. Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for bringing the greatest possible glory to God. Amen.
A Simple Act of Consecration
O dearest Saint Joseph, I consecrate myself to your honour and give myself to you, that you may always be my father, my protector and my guide in the way of salvation. Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and fervent love of the interior life. After your example may I do all my actions for the greater glory of God, in union with the Divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. O Blessed Saint Joseph, pray for me, that I may share in the peace and joy of your holy death.
Amen.
by St. Alphonsus Ligouri
Oh Holy Patriarch, I rejoice with you at the exalted dignity by which you were deemed worthy to act as father to Jesus, to give him orders and to be obeyed by him whom heaven and earth obey.
O great saint, as you were served by God, I too wish to be taken into your service. I choose you, after Mary, to be my chief advocate and protector.
I promise to honor you everyday by some special act of devotion and by placing myself under your daily protection.
By that sweet company which Jesus and Mary gave you in your lifetime, protect me all through life, so that I may never separate myself from my God by losing his grace.
My dear St. Joseph, pray to Jesus for me. Certainly, He can never refuse you anything, as He obeyed all your orders while on earth. Tell Him to detach me from all creatures and from myself, to inflame me with His holy love, and then to do with me what He pleases.
By that assistance which Jesus and Mary gave you at death, I beg of you to protect me in a special way at the hour of my death, so that dying assisted by you, in the company of Jesus and Mary, I may go to thank you in paradise and, in your company, to praise my God for all eternity.
Amen.
by St. Bernardine of Siena
Oh my beloved St. Joseph, adopt me as thy child. Take charge of my salvation; watch over me day and night; preserve me from the occasions of sin; obtain for me purity of body. Through thy intercession with Jesus, grant me a spirit of sacrifice, humility, self-denial, burning love for Jeus in the Blessed Sacrament, and a sweet and tender love for Mary, my mother. St. Joseph, be with me living, be with me dying, and obtain for me a favorable judgement from Jesus, my merciful Savior.
Amen.
O Divine Mercy, Lover of my soul, the spear that pierced your Sacred Heart opened up for us and the whole world a never ending flow of Your grace and mercy. Even one drop of Your Precious Blood would have been enough for the salvation of all mankind. Yet, Your love for us is so overwhelming, causing You to pour out for us Your Abundant Life, Your Human Blood, Your Divine Mercy without reserve. You emptied Yourself completely, leaving nothing undone for our benefit.
The only adequate response to Your great blessing is to trust in You! To trust in You with faithfulness, with hopefulness, and with gratefulness beyond measure. And even such trust is incomparable with the amazing love and mercy You already share with me.
This very day it is my desire to consecrate myself to You, O Divine Mercy, without holding anything back. I give You my full attention, all that I have, and all whom I love. Please accept me into Your Ocean of Mercy where I may soak in Your healing power and quench the otherwise insatiable thirst of my soul. Amen! JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU!
Written by Reverend Gregory C. Paffel, M.Div.
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert C. Harren, J.C.L.
Imprimatur: + Most Reverend Donald J. Kettler, D.D.
Bishop of St. Cloud, April 6, 2017
by Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart
My most loving Jesus, I consecrate myself today anew and without reserve to Your divine Heart. I consecrate to You my body with all its senses, my soul with all its faculties: my whole being. I consecrate to You all my thoughts, words and actions; all my sufferings and labours; all my hopes, consolations and joys; and, above all, I consecrate to You my poor heart, that it may love only You and be consumed as a victim in the fire of Your love. Accept, O Jesus, my most loving spouse, the desire that I have to console Your divine Heart and to be Yours for ever. Possess me in such a manner that henceforward I may have no other liberty than that of loving You, no other life than that of suffering and dying for You.
I place in You unlimited trust and I hope, from Your infinite mercy, for the pardon of my sins. I place in Your hands all my cares, especially that of my eternal salvation. I promise to love and honour You to the last moment of my life, and to propagate, with the help of Your divine grace and as far as I am able, devotion to Your Sacred Heart. Dispose of me, O divine Heart of Jesus, according to Your pleasure; I desire no other recompense than Your greater glory and Your holy love.
Grant me the grace to find my dwelling place in Your Sacred Heart where I desire to pass every day of my life and where I wish to breathe my last breath. Make my heart Your abode, the place of Your repose, so that we may remain intimately united until, finally, I may praise, love, and possess You for all eternity, singing for ever the infinite mercy of Your Sacred Heart.
Amen.
by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Thee I consecrate and offer up my person and my life, my actions, trials, and sufferings, that my entire being may henceforth only be employed in loving, honoring and glorifying Thee. This is my irrevocable will, to belong entirely to Thee, and to do all for Thy love, renouncing with my whole heart all that can displease Thee.
I take Thee, O Sacred Heart, for the sole object of my love, the protection of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy of my frailty and inconstancy, the reparation for all the defects of my life, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be Thou, O Most Merciful Heart, my justification before God Thy Father, and screen me from His anger which I have so justly merited. I fear all from my own weakness and malice, but placing my entire confidence in Thee, O Heart of Love, I hope all from Thine infinite Goodness. Annihilate in me all that can displease or resist Thee. Imprint Thy pure love so deeply in my heart that I may never forget Thee or be separated from Thee.
I beseech Thee, through Thine infinite Goodness, grant that my name be engraved upon Thy Heart, for in this I place all my happiness and all my glory, to live and to die as one of Thy devoted servants.
Amen.