How to Consecrate a Child to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Usually the time best suited to consecrate a child to our Blessed Mother is immediately after Baptism, or on some feast of our Blessed Mother or on the first Saturday of any month. The infant is carried by the parents or godparents, or, whenever possible, by a priest, to an altar or shrine of Our Lady. There the infant is dedicated and offered to Mary by a silent prayer begging her to accept the child as her special ward and to afford the child her special maternal protection throughout life and especially at the moment of death. After this, any formula of dedication to the Immaculate Mary may be recited, such as the one below.

The parents should promise our Blessed Mother to raise the child in a deeply Catholic atmosphere, instilling in the soul of the child from early infancy a tender love for Jesus and Mary. When possible, the family rosary should be recited in the home daily.

It would be fitting on the day of consecration to have a Mass offered in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the intention that she might preserve the child in temporal and spiritual dangers, and especially that the child may ever preserve its baptismal innocence, or, if this grace be ever lost, that it may be regained through repentance, and above all, that the child be given the grace of final perseverance.

As a fitting reminder of this dedication, some mothers dress the child in blue and white — a boy until three years of age and a girl until seven years of age.