Choices, Decisions, and Consecrating Our Families to the Queen of Heaven

As her children transition into young adulthood, Tina Mayeux reflects on the benefits of consecrating ourselves and our families to Our Lady.  

When I am grocery shopping for my family, I'm always amazed and sometimes perplexed by the array of choices shoppers encounter.  From the variety of breakfast cereal options to the numerous brands of laundry detergent lining the shelves, every trip to the grocery store brings with it the need to make countless small decisions. These choices are minor and relatively inconsequential. In life, however, we face more weighty and important decisions which affect our lives and the lives of our families.  

As they get older, our children, too, find themselves with an increased sense of freedom and more opportunities and options as they transition into the teenage and young adult years.  How can we, as parents, continue to gently guide them while allowing them the space to make their own decisions and grow into the life and vocation God has planned for them? 

A Means to Sainthood 

A powerful action we can take to help our children as they face the uncertainty of life's many problems and decisions is to turn to Mary as Queen and Mother, entrusting our families to her protection and care. Although our influence over our children may not be quite as strong as it once was, our heavenly Mother can direct and instruct them in ways unknown to us. We know that she loves them and desires their salvation even more than we do. We can ask her to pray for them and give them the gifts of wisdom and discernment in the many choices and decisions they are faced with in this new era of freedom and independence they are entering.  

Consecrating our children to Mary's protection can be as simple as a heartfelt offering of them to her, either in our own words or by adopting an existing prayer of consecration. If our families are willing, we can also invite them to join us in a period of preparation for a more formal Marian Consecration. Two resources for preparing for and completing such a consecration include True Devotion to Mary by Saint Louis de Montfort and 33 Days to Morning Glory by Father Michael Gaitley, MIC. As Saint Louis assures us in True Devotion, Marian consecration is "the surest, easiest, shortest, and the most perfect means" to becoming a saint.   

Mary Perfects Our Offerings 

By consecrating ourselves and our families to Jesus through Mary, we give her all of our interior and spiritual goods and our good works, past, present, and future to use as she sees fit. With so many family members, friends, and loved ones in our lives in need of our prayers, it can be difficult to remember and ask Jesus and Mary to answer every petition. Instead of choosing on our own how to apply the graces of our prayers and good works, we give Mary the right to decide how they are best distributed. That's one less decision we have to make, and, of course, Our Lady knows how best to use our offerings.  

Mary also purifies and refines these offerings we extend to her. As imperfect as our prayers and actions are, when we give them to her, she makes them holy and acceptable in the eyes of Our Lord. In True Devotion, Saint Louis compares our offerings to a meager piece of fruit which a peasant gifts to a king. When the peasant gives it first to the queen, she places it on a beautiful dish of gold before presenting it to the king, thereby perfecting and ennobling the gift. Similarly, when we give Mary, our Queen, everything we possess, she makes our offerings worthy of Jesus, the King.  

The Queen of Families 

In 1995, Saint John Paul II added the title "Queen of Families" to the Litany of Loreto. When we turn, as families, to our Queen and Mother, we can be assured that she will respond to our needs quickly and provide comfort and an answer to our prayers.  

The indecision and uncertainty of life can be like those confusing choices we sometimes must make at the grocery store. It can be difficult for our children to discern and choose the path that God wants them to follow. Through consecrating our loved ones to Mary, Queen of Families, we can be confident that she will instruct and guide our children as they become more independent. With Our Lady's help, we have hope that they will be able to successfully navigate the many decisions they will face as they mature into adulthood.  

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Copyright 2025 Tina Mayeux
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