To Jesus through Mary

Nettie Barr shares with local youth her journey of consecration to Mary

“To Jesus through Mary” was the famous mantra of St. Louis de Montfort, the great theologian of Marian devotion.

The priest was trying to express that it is through the witness and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary that we have the best guide in growing closer to Jesus. After all, it was Mary, a creature like us, who in a perfect act of obedience became the way by which Our Lord entered into human history, and she remained close to her Son even to His death on the cross. Today she remains the most perfect example to follow if we wish to make our own lives examples of obedience and devotion to God.

It is for this reason that consecration to Mary remains a popular devotion to many Catholics. And in her own recent consecration to the Blessed Mother, Nettie Barr hopes she too can be a witness of faith and obedience to God in her parish and wider community.

As she spoke before a recent assembly of students and staff at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Beaverlodge, the Rio Grande parishioner detailed how her decision to be consecrated to Mary is one way for her to grow closer to Jesus – and to hopefully help others do the same.

“I explained that when I am consecrated, I am entrusting myself to Mary as my mother and guide to bring me closer to Jesus,” Nettie said of her presentation. “It’s a big promise I’m making to God – to give my heart to Mary so that she can set it on fire for Jesus. I told the students that ‘Mary is going to help me, just as your mother helps you in special ways’.”

It was quite the journey that led Nettie to her consecration and to share her experience to the Beaverlodge students. Devotion the Blessed Mother has been instilled in Nettie since the cradle, as her family would get together to pray the Rosary just about every evening. Though she admits that, as a young girl, she didn’t think too much of reciting all those Hail Marys, and she would sometimes say she had too much homework to get out of praying it.

In recent years, Nettie has had a complete reversion to the Catholic faith of her youth, and now devotes much of her spiritual life to the Rosary, the Mass and more. It was while watching some videos on Formed – a Catholic app and subscription service – that Nettie discovered the practice of consecration to Mary.

She watched a video drawing from the insights of the popular book on consecration to Mary – 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC. The video described Marian consecration as a way to make a special vow to God to strive for the holiness, and to place Mary as a special guide and intercessor in our own pursuit of holiness.

“After learning about it more, I thought ‘Well gosh, I could definitely use any extra help in my spiritual journey; I could use the help of my spiritual mother’,” said Nettie. “But at the time I didn’t understand it all too well and I felt I was not worthy of something like this, especially because I had fallen away from the Church for a period of my life.”

Though she dismissed the idea at first, the thought kept coming back to her in prayer. Then one evening she came across a quote from St. Louis de Montfort, who said “the surest way to become a saint is through consecrating oneself to Mary,” which again brought the idea to the forefront of her mind.

“I know I’m not a saint, there will be no St. Nettie, but I do want to try my best to live for God,” she said. “And I saw that quote as a message about how I could try to do the will of God better. So I started researching and pursuing the idea more.”

So she continued to pray about it, questioned some priests and even tried to see if there was a Catholic group online that she could do the consecration with. Finally, her husband Greg stated that if this is something that is playing on her mind, it is a likely sign God is calling her to pursue it. So she tracked down a copy of 33 Days of Morning Glory, and began to plan out her consecration.

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This is only an excerpt. Read the full story in the March 2025 edition of Northern Light