Along with the Liturgy, the Divine Office, and the Holy Rosary, it is a transformative, efficacious prayer. The Novena is beautiful and so easy. Recite this prayer often, and you will never doubt in Our Lord’s love for us. This will absolutely help one grow close to Christ and quickly.

I have looked into that question myself, and found that acceptable and appropriate ways to consecrate oneself to Mary are to either do a formal consecration, as outlined by St. Louis de Montfort, in his book, Preparation for Total Consecration, (see link below), or to simply say a novena of prayers to Mary, or a heartfelt prayer to her, which is followed by, or includes, a formality. The formality could include actions, such as lighting a candle, kneeling, having witnesses present, arranging an altar, basically setting aside a block of time and a place, to make it real and intentional, keeping in mind that you’re about to meet your Mother and your Queen. For such an intimate celebration, you want to be ready and prepared to stand before Mary face to face, ready to say Yes to her, as she said Yes to her Son–ready to hand over your very life and heart to her. With that disposition, you cannot fail.

Here is the link for St. Louis de Montfort’s book: http://www.amazon.com/Preparation-Total-Consecration-Louis-Montfort/dp/0910984107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332538893&sr=8-1

I will never forget that day for many reasons, but primarily because God sent Ms. Falana that day to help ease my fears. I have prayed for her many times a day since then. I have offered many prayers and a lot of my own suffering up for her healing. It is absolutely not at all surprising to me that the Mother of our Lord would look down on her and intercede in her healing.

Ms. Falana, if you read this, my own MS has advanced considerably. I am now primarily confined to a wheelchair and in a great deal of pain daily. I, too, have always felt that if I had the opportunity to go to Medjugorje, I just have always know that Mary would intercede in my healing, too. I am asking that if you are ever able to go there again, could you please pray there for me? I would love to go myself, but I live only on disability and for now barely have enough money to cover my medications. I know in my heart that if you go there again and pray for me it will be exactly the same as if I were there myself. You are a woman of great faith, and I, too, am a woman of great faith. I will never forget the words you said to me back in the late 1990′s, and it’s these words that keep me going on the really tough days.

God bless you, Ms. Falana. He must have great things planned for you!

Love and prayers always,
Ann Hall