Hello Rosary lovers! God bless you! In this post we will briefly introduce some popular and important devotions to Mary that have blessed millions of Catholics throughout the ages. Perhaps you will find something of interest to you. Enjoy 🙂

The Hail Mary

The most popular form of devotion to Mary is one simple but profound prayer: the Hail Mary. The Hail Mary is thought to be the second-most important prayer in the Catholic Church, after the Lord’s prayer.

The Hail Mary is an extremely powerful prayer that millions and millions of Catholics pray often. It has brought untold blessings and healings and miracles to many.

St Dominic said that whenever he was asked to pray for someone, he simply said a Hail Mary for them.

The Hail Mary is as follows:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

It is thought that no prayer so delights the heart of the Mother of God as this prayer. Because this prayer delights the heart of Mary so much, it also delights the heart of God and Jesus tremendously.

Jesus loves his Mother and wants her to be honoured. The Hail Mary is an awesome way to honour her.

Try saying one Hail Mary daily. Once you’ve managed that, try saying 3 daily: morning, afternoon and evening. You can then build up from there.

St Seraphim of Sarov, a greatly acclaimed Russian Orthodox saint (and also a Catholic saint), used to pray 150 Hail Marys every evening. He recommended this practice to many believers, and said he had heard of many miracles related to the devotion.

(As an interesting side-fact, Pope Francis apparently keeps an icon of St Seraphim of Sarov next to his bed.)

For more information on the Hail Mary, see our other posts on it.

The Rosary

Generally speaking, the greatest form of devotion to Mary in the world is devotion to the most holy Rosary.

Here at rosarylovers.com, we have lots and lots of posts on the Rosary. Feel free to check them out.

It is our belief, along with St Louis de Montfort, that the Rosary is Mary’s favourite devotion. This also seems to be what Mary implied when she visited the shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. Constantly, Mary urged the children to pray the Rosary.

The 7 Sorrows

Another popular devotion to Mary is the 7 sorrows devotion. This is a simple devotion which involves announcing a sorrow that Mary experienced in her life and then praying one Hail Mary.

The 7 Sorrows are as follows:

1. The Prophecy of Simeon.

2. The Flight to Egypt.

3. The Loss of Jesus for 3 days.

4. The Carrying of his Cross.

5. The Crucifixion of Jesus.

6. The Taking Down from the Cross of our Lord.

7. The Burial of our Lord.

So you simply recite one of these sorrows, and then pray a Hail Mary.

If you wish, you can recite the sorrow, then pause and think on it for a moment. But the mere recitation of the sorrow is considered enough to be a brief meditation on it.

There is lots of information about this devotion here.

The Immaculate Heart

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was popularised by the Fatima seers in the early 20th century.

According to the shepherd children, particularly Sister Lucia, Mary revealed that she wanted the children to be devoted to her immaculate heart. In particular, Mary called upon the children to make reparation to her immaculate heart for the sins of the world.

Human sin doesn’t only grieve God, but it also deeply breaks the immaculate heart of the Mother of God. Because humanity has hurt God and Mary so much, Mary calls on us to make reparation to her immaculate Heart.

Sister Lucia also told of a special devotion Mary revealed to her: the First Five Saturday’s Devotion.

I am not terribly familiar with this devotion since I personally have never had the opportunity to practice it. But I heartily recommend it as an authentic devotion to the Mother of God.

It is also said that by doing this devotion, you can NEVER be lost. So it’s definitely worth it.

Consecration Prayers

One of my favourite devotions to Mary is that of praying consecration prayers to her immaculate heart. You can find many of these prayers here.

These are EXTREMELY powerful, no-messing, prayers to Mary. They are ‘all or nothing’ prayers.

I devoted myself for a few months to praying these prayers daily. I would pray about 3 of them daily sometime in the evening. This was my only prayer schedule for a few months, but I cannot describe how well it fed my hungry soul.

The results in my life were incredible. I grew very much and very quickly in my faith. You can read about this here.

As with many things in life, prayer is often much more about quality than quantity. There have been many people who, sadly, pray their entire lives but have never really prayed.

God wants the heart more than anything. If you say these prayers from the heart, even just one daily, you should see results quickly in your life.

I have often returned to these prayers in my life as a Catholic, and they are always consoling and beautiful.

St Louis de Montfort’s Formal Consecration

The ultimate way to be devoted to Mary might be St Louis de Montfort’s formal Consecration to Mary.

This is not for the faint-hearted. It is a serious, formal and fairly binding consecration to Jesus through Mary. St Louis de Montfort invented this to help Catholics give themselves entirely to Jesus through Mary as the main channel.

The Louis de Montfort method of seeking salvation is to relate EVERYTHING back to Mary. He calls on Catholics to do everything in Mary, through Mary, by Mary and with Mary. Everything through Mary. In fact, Mary becomes the main one you go to about everything.

You can read about this wonderful method of devotion to God in St Louis de Montfort’s outstanding book ‘The Secret of Mary’. This is one of my all-time favourite books, and it was utterly life-changing when I first read it.

If you are serious enough, you can participate in the formal Consecration to Mary. You can find information about that here.

Many of us regard this Consecration as one of the most important things a Catholic can ever do. It is also approved and endorsed by the Church, and offers many blessings and indulgences for those who do it. It is highly, highly recommended!

The Brown Scapular

Unquestionably the simplest way to be devoted to Mary, wearing the Brown Scapular is a time-honoured method of attaining salvation.

Nothing could be easier than this method of devotion to Mary. You simply buy a Brown Scapular, and ask a priest to enroll you. After being enrolled, you wear the Brown Scapular constantly.

The simple wearing of the Brown Scapular is itself a constant and silent prayer to Mary. Sister Lucia of Fatima said that the Brown Scapular goes hand-in-hand with the Rosary, and that both are as important as each other. She also said wearing the Brown Scapular is how we show our devotion to Mary’s immaculate Heart.

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There are many other forms of devotion to Mary in the Catholic Church, but I offer these to whet your appetite.

May you grow in grace, through Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.