What is The Promise?
During the First General Assembly – Rome 2000, the members of the Association of Vincentian Marian Youth made this commitment: “We will promote and inculcate a deeper understanding of the Act of Consecration (The Promise), the sign that we belong to the Association. All National Associations will use the same formula for this Act of Consecration” (Cf. Final Document 3.3). We want to recover and revalue this dynamism that has been present in the life of the Association from the very beginning and which is the most relevant expression of its spirituality. Hence, the International Council has worked intensely for two years, consulting the National Councils and has approved in its meeting of January 12, 2003 this new formula, together with a brief reflection and celebration guide. It does not aim to be a treatise of systematic theology or a catechesis on the Marian Consecration… there are many people who can later on do both of these things.[1] Our aim is that this material be a simple means understandable to our young.
The VMY Association offers to the youth the Promise to Christ through Mary as a way of making explicit their baptismal consecration and to make of their life a total gift to God through service and evangelization of the poor, choosing Mary as Mother and model.
The Promise today is a proposal.
It is simple even if it has various meanings and applications in other fields. Terms similar to promise are self-giving, dedication, offering, option, etc., but they do not surpass it. The Decree “Perfectae Caritatis”, no. 5, of the Second Vatican Council, says that all consecration (promises) in the Church “is deeply rooted in the baptismal consecration” and “expresses it more fully”. Any other consecration (e.g. matrimony or priesthood) serves to make him/her “capable of deriving more abundant fruit from this baptismal grace”. (LG 44).
Hence, the members of VMY want to reaffirm the giving of the whole life to God through the Promise. This takes form in the following of Christ, a road that the young will want to journey together with Mary. More than an outward act of piety or a terminology of our daily routine, it is a way of living, a way of life: to be attuned with Mary so as to live more intensely and faithfully our baptismal consecration.
Today we hear about people dedicating their life to sports, to their families, to their profession, etc… this entails self-giving, courage, commitment and life witnessing. In the same way, the young who make the promise to Jesus with Mary, with their lives and in the midst of the world – with all that they are, all that they have and do – give themselves to the cause of Jesus and proclaim to the world their Christian option. Our Marian consecration leads us to holiness through our apostolic commitment. It requires openness to the different forms of collaboration and service that respond to the needs of our world today.
How do we define or describe the consecration in the VMY Association? There are many ways to do it but it is not simply a matter of finding the correct terminology but more of the actual deeds. It could be expressed in this way:
It is a steadfast, sincere and freely given personal decision to live out the baptismal commitment by giving one’s self fully to the following of Christ and the building up of his Kingdom, being inspired in Mary’s self-giving and opting for the evangelization of the poor in the Vincentian way.
The promise is a faith response that becomes a plan of life. It is our yes to Christ’s invitation: “If you want… follow me” (Cf. Lk. 9:23). To consecrate one’s self is to deeply live in Christ and for Christ, following the Gospel and seeking the perfection of love. In order to achieve this ideal, we find in Mary the way that leads us more directly to it. When we make our consecration, we make our own her “fiat” to God’s will (Lk. 1:38) and we lovingly welcome her, like the disciple received her into his own home: “This is your mother” (Jn. 19:27). Hence our motto is “To Jesus with Mary” because it fosters the gift of our own selves, our availability and effective collaboration in the building up of the Kingdom.
It is good to recall the definition made by Pope Pius XII on the consecration to the Mother of God: “It is a total gift of self, for the whole of life and for all eternity; and a gift which is not a mere formality or sentimentality, but effectual, comprising the full intensity of the Christian life – Marian life – apostolic life.”[2]. The theologian, Karl Rahner, referring to this same theme, calls that moment the “key moment” – that moment of eternity in time – in which the Christian person decides for always the direction of his own life[3]. Beautiful name – key moment – to express the moment of consecration. As the Association has always affirmed, “consecration is its soul”, it is the soul of its spirituality.
Lessons Plans for the Marian Promise--PDF format
The VMY Association offers to the youth the Promise to Christ through Mary as a way of making explicit their baptismal consecration and to make of their life a total gift to God through service and evangelization of the poor, choosing Mary as Mother and model.
The Promise today is a proposal.
It is simple even if it has various meanings and applications in other fields. Terms similar to promise are self-giving, dedication, offering, option, etc., but they do not surpass it. The Decree “Perfectae Caritatis”, no. 5, of the Second Vatican Council, says that all consecration (promises) in the Church “is deeply rooted in the baptismal consecration” and “expresses it more fully”. Any other consecration (e.g. matrimony or priesthood) serves to make him/her “capable of deriving more abundant fruit from this baptismal grace”. (LG 44).
Hence, the members of VMY want to reaffirm the giving of the whole life to God through the Promise. This takes form in the following of Christ, a road that the young will want to journey together with Mary. More than an outward act of piety or a terminology of our daily routine, it is a way of living, a way of life: to be attuned with Mary so as to live more intensely and faithfully our baptismal consecration.
Today we hear about people dedicating their life to sports, to their families, to their profession, etc… this entails self-giving, courage, commitment and life witnessing. In the same way, the young who make the promise to Jesus with Mary, with their lives and in the midst of the world – with all that they are, all that they have and do – give themselves to the cause of Jesus and proclaim to the world their Christian option. Our Marian consecration leads us to holiness through our apostolic commitment. It requires openness to the different forms of collaboration and service that respond to the needs of our world today.
How do we define or describe the consecration in the VMY Association? There are many ways to do it but it is not simply a matter of finding the correct terminology but more of the actual deeds. It could be expressed in this way:
It is a steadfast, sincere and freely given personal decision to live out the baptismal commitment by giving one’s self fully to the following of Christ and the building up of his Kingdom, being inspired in Mary’s self-giving and opting for the evangelization of the poor in the Vincentian way.
The promise is a faith response that becomes a plan of life. It is our yes to Christ’s invitation: “If you want… follow me” (Cf. Lk. 9:23). To consecrate one’s self is to deeply live in Christ and for Christ, following the Gospel and seeking the perfection of love. In order to achieve this ideal, we find in Mary the way that leads us more directly to it. When we make our consecration, we make our own her “fiat” to God’s will (Lk. 1:38) and we lovingly welcome her, like the disciple received her into his own home: “This is your mother” (Jn. 19:27). Hence our motto is “To Jesus with Mary” because it fosters the gift of our own selves, our availability and effective collaboration in the building up of the Kingdom.
It is good to recall the definition made by Pope Pius XII on the consecration to the Mother of God: “It is a total gift of self, for the whole of life and for all eternity; and a gift which is not a mere formality or sentimentality, but effectual, comprising the full intensity of the Christian life – Marian life – apostolic life.”[2]. The theologian, Karl Rahner, referring to this same theme, calls that moment the “key moment” – that moment of eternity in time – in which the Christian person decides for always the direction of his own life[3]. Beautiful name – key moment – to express the moment of consecration. As the Association has always affirmed, “consecration is its soul”, it is the soul of its spirituality.
Lessons Plans for the Marian Promise--PDF format