Blessed William Joseph Chaminade always had a spontaneous relationship with Mary. He would later call this relationship or bond with Mary devoton, dedication, alliance, piety, consecration. He always saw Mary as the Mother of Jesus and of the Church. She was the Mother of God who "descends," and Mother of human beings who "ascends." For him, Mary, woman and mother, is the maternal womb common to God and to humans. Both meet in her. She is the womb of light, of faith, of joy, of hopeful confidence, of warmth of welcome, of love. Though Mary does not create such graces, she obtains them by her prayers and applies them with love.
Consecration to Mary has profound affective connotations without which it would not achieve completely its fullness or its dynamism; it is not a matter simply of reason and will. "I offer you...my heart, all my being," is a formula used by many Marianists. To know, to love, to serve Mary; to form alliance with her; to be consecrated: all this means to make progress in knowing, loving and serving God, living the alliance with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It means being "consecrated" by the Trinity for the Trinity. We live for God in the maternal womb of Mary, the womb of the Church, from the moment of our Baptism.
