Review of “Family Consecration to Jesus Through Mary”

binzeo

6 years ago

St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s Consecration to Jesus through Mary is often considered the gold standard of Marian devotion. Sophia Institute Press recently published Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle’s creative variation on the traditional consecration. In Family Consecration to Jesus Through Mary, O’Boyle provides a valuable resource to help families consecrate their hearts to Jesus and Mary following the outline set out by St. Louis Marie de Montfort.

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Kid-Friendly, Parent-friendly

Parents will appreciate how easy this book makes completing a family consecration! O’Boyle lays out in detail a mini-retreat for each of the 33 days based on the traditional themes in a Montfort preparation. What does a day of mini-retreat look like? There’s a short morning and evening prayer, a page of teaching for parents, another page of teaching and discussion with your children, an action to carry out, and a brief family prayer. The teachings and actions are intended for children 7 and older, so this preparation is perfect for a family with elementary to high school age children. I love how easy this book is for the parent: there is no advance preparation required at all, just open and go!

Useful Extras

In addition to the 33 days of preparation, Family Consecration to Jesus Through Mary includes other handy additions. There’s a list of 17 Marian Feast Days with the accompanying days to start a preparation. That’s at least a feast day a month, so plenty of opportunities to start preparing for a consecration sooner rather than later! One of my other favorite extras was O’Boyle’s adaptation of de Montfort’s consecration prayer to make it more child-accessible. Of course, the original prayer is included too for adults and older teens.

A Worthwhile Endeavor

With families home and spending more time together than usual these days, this is the perfect time to to embark on a family consecration. I’m excited to use Family Consecration to Jesus Through Mary with my own children this fall. As we begin our school year, we’ll be doing the family consecration as part of our afternoon basket in August and September. It would be easy to do the preparation at the dinner table also. The True Devotion to Mary is a powerful devotion, and Family Consecration to Jesus Through Mary is a marvelous way to bring that devotion to life in your own family.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of “Family Consecration to Jesus Through Mary” from Sophia Institute Press in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.