This article contains the full text of the consecration to the Most Sweet Heart of Mary, made available so that anyone in Opus Dei can pray and meditate on it. Saint Josemaría arranged for these consecrations to be renewed each year on their respective feasts, with each member of the Work renewing them together with the others in their centre. The article includes the historical context in which Saint Josemaría made the consecration for the first time, the full text, and resources for growing in devotion to the Most Sweet Heart of Mary.
2. Consecration to the Most Sweet Heart of Mary (full text)
3. Resources for prayer and reflection
1. Historical context
Opus Dei was consecrated by its founder on four occasions: to the Holy Family (1951), to the Most Sweet Heart of Mary (1951), to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (1952), and to the Holy Spirit (1971). In every case, Saint Josemaría took this step to ask for divine help in the face of specific needs.
The second consecration took place on 15 August 1951, in the Shrine of Loreto. In the preceding months, the founder had a presentiment that a grave threat was hanging over the Work, based on a number of signs which, to varying degrees, seemed to point in that direction. But since he had no conclusive proof and did not know to whom he could turn in order to act and dispel the danger, his inner anxiety had no outlet. At last, he asked all the members of Opus Dei to pray the aspiration, Cor Mariæ dulcissimum, iter para tutum! (“Most sweet Heart of Mary, prepare for us a safe way!”) and decided to consecrate the Work to the Most Sweet Heart of Mary. He chose the Shrine of Loreto, where the Holy House is venerated, to carry out the consecration, using spontaneous words after celebrating the Mass, in a passageway behind the altar at the Holy House (Blessed Alvaro del Portillo was celebrating Mass at that moment).
Afterwards, he composed a formula and indicated that it should be renewed annually on 15 August.
Several months later, the threat that Saint Josemaría had sensed came to light, thanks to various circumstances, among them a warning from Blessed Cardinal Schuster, Archbishop of Milan. According to the available information, it was an attempt to revise the juridical status of Opus Dei (which had been definitively approved by the Pope only a year earlier) in order to alter it substantially, even to the point of dispensing with the founder. After a firm protest from Msgr. Escrivá, addressed in a letter to Cardinal Tedeschini, who read it to the pope, Pius XII put an end to any procedure that might have been underway (provisionally in 1952, and definitively in 1955), and the matter was closed.
This consecration is in harmony with the deep Marian spirit that characterises the spiritual life of the members of Opus Dei, and served to reaffirm something that had been lived from the beginning: placing the Work and its apostolates under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
2. Consecration to the Most Sweet Heart of Mary
O Mary most holy, by having conceived Jesus Christ in your virginal womb, you have become for us Mother of grace and of life, of mercy and of pardon. Graciously accept the consecration of Opus Dei that we now make to your Immaculate Heart.
Holy Mary, our hope, seat of wisdom, handmaid of the Lord, Mother of fair love: through your powerful intercession make this consecration pleasing to Jesus.
We consecrate to you our being and our life; everything that is ours: all that we love and all that we are. Our bodies, our hearts and our souls are for you; we and our apostolates are yours. We want everything, in us and around us, to belong to you and to share in your motherly blessings.
And to make this consecration truly effective and lasting, today at your feet, O Mary, we renew the dedication that we made to God in Opus Dei.
Let us pray
O Heart of Mary, Mother of God and our Mother; most sweet Heart, perfect image of the Heart of Jesus, give heed to the petitions that, with filial piety, we address to you.
Set our poor hearts aflame so that we may love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit with all our soul. Inspire us with a deep love for the Church and the Pope, and make us live in full submission to all their teachings. Give us a great love for the Work, our Father, the Father and our Directors.
Grant that, faithful to our vocation, we may possess a burning zeal for souls. Raise us, O Mother, to a state of perfect love of God; and grant us the gift of final perseverance.
And since your prayer is all-powerful in the presence of God, allow us to choose you as special protector: so that, after a holy life here on earth, we may have the happiness of praising the Blessed Trinity with you forever in heaven. Amen.
At the end, the aspiration Cor Mariae dulcíssimum is said three times, and all answer, each time: iter para tutum!
3. Resources for prayer and reflection
- The Blessed Virgin, Cause of Our Joy (homily in text and audio)
- “In Loreto I am especially indebted to our Lady:” the story of the consecration
- The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary: more resources for celebrating the feast
Writings of St. Josemaría about the Most Sweet Heart of Mary
- There is no heart more human than that of a person overflowing with supernatural sense. Think of Holy Mary, who is full of grace, Daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the Son, Spouse of God the Holy Spirit. Her Heart has room for all humanity and makes no distinction or discrimination. —Every person is her son or her daughter (Furrow, no. 801).
- Let us turn to Mary, our Mother, and the most excellent creature ever fashioned by God's hands. Let us ask her to make us humanly good so that our human virtues, woven into the life of grace, may become our best way of helping those who, with us, are working in the world to bring peace and happiness to all men (Friends of God, no. 93).
- Cor Mariae Dulcissimum, iter para tutum: Most Sweet Heart of Mary, prepare a safe way. Guide our steps on earth with strength and security. Become for us the path we are to follow, since you in your love know the way, a sure short-cut, to the love of Jesus Christ (Christ is Passing By, no. 178).
- Get accustomed to entrusting your poor heart to the Sweet and Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that she may purify it from so much dross, and lead it to the Most Sacred and Most Merciful Heart of Jesus (Furrow, no. 830).
- Cor Mariae perdolentis, miserere nobis! — Invoke the Heart of Holy Mary, with the purpose and determination of uniting yourself to her sorrow, in reparation for your sins and the sins of men of all times. And pray to her — for every soul — that her sorrow may increase in us our aversion to sin, and that we may be able to love the physical or moral contradictions of each day as a means of expiation (Furrow, no. 258).
- Have recourse to the Blessed Virgin every day with complete confidence. Your soul and your life will feel comforted at once. —She will let you partake of the treasures she keeps in her heart, for “never has it been known that anyone who sought her protection was left unaided” (Furrow, no. 768).
- Let us ask the Mother of God, who is our Mother, to prepare for us the way that leads to the fullness of love. Cor Mariae dulcissimum, iter para tutum: “Most Sweet Heart of Mary, prepare a safe way!” Her sweet heart knows the surest path for finding Christ (Christ is Passing By, no. 38).