Lighthouse

Lighthouse

Our team wants to feel like that: a team, more than anything. Unity has been a huge desire on all of our hearts since day one, but I tell you, it is difficult. The Devil knows that there is support in community, and so he tries to distance us from each other. When he isolates us, we are more likely to fall into sin and despair. We need each other to remind our souls that they are not islands; we were made to be in relationships, not just with each other, but with God. Healthy relationships here on earth are the best training ground for that heavenly relationship we strive for.

With all this in mind, our team has decided to make a Marian consecration together. Such a consecration means that we devote ourselves to Jesus through Mary, because she is the only human being who never deviated at all from God’s will, and she can teach us how to do the same. By doing this as a team, we believe it will unite us under a common purpose, under a common protectress found in Our Lady, and draw others to us through increased grace.

The way I like to think of Marian consecration is this: Imagine a lighthouse. The only way it can protect and guide the ships still at troubled seas is by lighting up the large lamp as a beacon. But if you lit the lamp, and it was only a tiny flame that was lit, the service it could offer would be limited at best. The flame, therefore, should be increased and intensified as much as possible, so as to be the best possible guide it can be. Marian consecration is like oil thrown on the flame that sends the flame dancing higher and shining brighter than it ever could before; God’s grace given through her refines and amplifies our natural merits and virtues, and I have seen the effects of this firsthand.

I had just made my first ever consecration to Our Lady on September 4th this year, which happened to be the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The next day, I had a retreat with a larger small group than normal: ten girls. During the prayer ministry time and after I had prayed with all the girls in my group, I grabbed a rosary from the front to say a decade for the girls, and was making my way back to my seat when two of the girls in my group stopped me. They both held rosaries and, looking confused, asked me if I knew how to pray it. I said yes, and offered to teach it to them. Some of the other girls in my group looked curious, so I told them that anyone who wanted to learn the rosary could come with me. I ended up teaching all ten of my girls the rosary and prayed a decade with them, and not only that, but so many of them wanted directions on how to pray so they could continue the devotion at home that I didn’t have time to write out enough for them all and had to tell them to Google it!

I really felt like Our Lady of the Rosary was working through me, because the girls saw me and sought out that knowledge. The graces of Mary were so strong that they could still see them despite their imperfect house in me, and that’s where the heart of Marian consecration lies:  a beacon of virtue, amplified to full lighthouse power, drawing people nearer to the root of God’s love and grace, to Home in heaven—and all done through imperfect humans, because God has that kind of power.

Now if that sort of grace can draw in youth who have never experienced God before like that, imagine what it can do for ten young missionaries who are already striving to go deeper in their relationship with God. When all of us become united in this, when our separate merits and grace become united and amplified through Mary, the light will be ten times as strong—certainly a reliable lighthouse to lead people safely Home.

Love and peace,

Encounter 2

P.S. If you are interested in Marian consecration, a fantastic and insightful resource is the book 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Marian Consecration, by Michael E. Gaitley, MIC. Our team has been working through it and we'll make our team consecration on November 19th, the feast of the Presentation of Mary.