O Dómina mea, O Mater mea, tibi me totum óffero; atque, ut me tibi probem devótum, consécro tibi hódie óculos meos, aures meas, os meum, cor meum, plane me totum. Quóniam ítaque tuus sum, O bona Mater, serva me, defénde me, ut rem ac possessiónem tuam. Amen.
✦O my Lady, O my Mother, I offer myself entirely to thee, and to show my devotion to thee, I consecrate to thee this day my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my whole being without reserve. Wherefore, good Mother, as I am thine own, keep me, guard me, as thy property and possession. Amen.
This little act of consecration — known from its Latin opening as the O Domina mea — is one of the most widely-prayed of all self-offerings to Our Lady. In a few lines the soul hands itself over to Mary without reserve: eyes, ears, mouth, heart, "my whole being," asking her to keep and guard what is now her own.
By long tradition the prayer is ascribed to St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568–1591), the young Jesuit and patron of youth, who is said to have prayed it morning and evening. It stands within the wider tradition of Marian consecration — later given its fullest expression by St. Louis de Montfort (1673–1716), who taught that the surest and easiest way to Jesus is through total consecration to Mary, that she might form Christ in the soul. The O Domina mea is a simple daily echo of that same self-gift.
By long custom it is prayed morning and evening, and it was a favorite of many saints as a way of beginning and ending the day in Our Lady's keeping. To consecrate oneself to Mary takes nothing from Christ: because everything she is and has is ordered to her Son, whoever gives himself to the Mother is given all the more surely to God.
O my Lady, O my Mother,
I offer myself entirely to thee,
and to show my devotion to thee,
I consecrate to thee this day my eyes,
my ears, my mouth, my heart,
my whole being without reserve.
Wherefore, good Mother, as I am thine own,
keep me, guard me,
as thy property and possession. Amen.
O Dómina mea, O Mater mea,
tibi me totum óffero;
atque, ut me tibi probem devótum,
consécro tibi hódie óculos meos,
aures meas, os meum, cor meum,
plane me totum.
Quóniam ítaque tuus sum, O bona Mater,
serva me, defénde me,
ut rem ac possessiónem tuam. Amen.
O my Lady, O my Mother,
I offer myself entirely to thee,
and to show my devotion to thee,
I consecrate to thee this day my eyes,
my ears, my mouth, my heart,
my whole being without reserve.
Wherefore, good Mother, as I am thine own,
keep me, guard me,
as thy property and possession. Amen.