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What is it and why should I consider it?

On Oct. 7 the Catholic Church celebrated the Feast of the Holy Rosary, which for many centuries had been known as "Our Lady of Victory." It was established to honor Mary for her role in the 16th Century naval victory which secured Europe against Turkish invasion. In anticipation of this battle, Pope Pius V had asked all of Christendom to pray the rosary, and he credited Europe's victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Matthew Church chose this particular feast day this year to provide people with a formal ceremony to make or renew their consecration to Jesus through Mary.

I was so excited to be able to renew my consecration on this special occasion with others who spent the prior 33 days preparing to make theirs. Interestingly, I hadn't even heard about the consecration to Jesus through Mary until about four years ago and, frankly, after learning more about it I still had difficulty understanding it.

St. Louis de Montfort has described the consecration to Jesus through Mary as "the shortest, easiest, most secure and perfect way to become a saint." If this sounds a little out of reach, listen to what Pope Francis told youth in 2013: "We need saints without cassocks, without veils – we need saints with jeans and tennis shoes. We need saints for the 21st Century. We need saints to live in the world, to sanctify the world and to not be afraid of living in the world by their presence in it. We need saints who love God in the first place and need saints who love the Eucharist. We need saints."

In its simplest form, the consecration is about us asking Mary to bring us closer to her Son Jesus. In turn, we give Mary permission to work within us and through us by offering her all that we have and all that we are.

However, this begs the question, "Why do we give Mary everything if the goal is to get closer to Jesus? Can't we just go directly to Him?" Yes, we can, but it has helped me to understand that Mary is like a sherpa who guides a climber up Mount Everest. The climber can go out on his or her own, but will probably have an easier trip accompanied by someone who lives in the area and has successfully climbed the mountain before and knows the best way.

Asking for Mary's intercession is an acknowledgement of our need for assistance and is not an implication that Jesus is inaccessible or needs help drawing us to Him. We do recognize, however, that God has involved Mary from the very beginning in bringing Jesus to humanity at the Nativity and humanity to Christ at the Miracle at Cana. It was God who entrusted His beloved Son to Mary to teach Him and care for Him. He also gave Jesus to Mary to prepare her for the fullness of her role as our spiritual mother, which was given to her at the foot of the cross by Jesus Himself.

Through my consecration, I have truly begun to experience this beautiful gift of Mary bringing me closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I encourage you to learn more about the consecration to Jesus through Mary. Two books to consider are "33 Days to Morning Glory" by Father Michael Gaitley and "Total Consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary" by Montfort Publications.

As Mary promised us at Fatima, "To all those who embrace my Immaculate Heart, I promise salvation and their souls will be loved by God as flowers placed by Me before His throne."

Lennie Cox is a member of St. Matthew Church in Charlotte, where she serves as volunteer coordinator.