For 33 days, middle school students at St. Fabian prayed the rosary, read, reflected and sacrificed for the Blessed Mother
FARMINGTON HILLS — Seventy students knelt before an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on her feast day Dec. 12 at St. Fabian School and consecrated themselves to Jesus through his Blessed Mother.
Students in fifth through eighth grade spent the month preparing for their Marian consecration by reading the book "33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration" by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC, praying a daily decade of the rosary and sacrificing their recess and lunch hour once a week for small group discussions.
The students' act of radical faith came at the suggestion of Fr. Matthew Kurt, who was preparing to renew his own Marian consecration on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, also his birthday.
Fr. Kurt, who was ordained by Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron in May and assigned to St. Fabian in July, approached Kim Kerwin, the parish director of religious education and a middle school theology teacher at St. Fabian, with the idea of leading both the parish and the school to make their Marian consecration.
“We told the kids, ‘Absolutely no pressure; nobody has to do it, but if you want to do this, you are going to meet with us once a week during lunch and recess. We are going to meet with you guys and talk and reflect with you about what the reading for the last week was like, and we are going to give you discussion questions,’” Kerwin explained.
Kerwin and Fr. Kurt expected no more than 10 students to sign up — instead, 70 signed up and saw it through to the end.
“It was overwhelming how, including unlikely kids, said, ‘Yeah, that sounds awesome. I do want to give up recess for a time to go and sit and talk about Mary,’” Kerwin said.
Kerwin divided the students into boys and girls small groups by grade and appointed an eighth grader as the leader of each group. Kerwin and Fr. Kurt encouraged the students to go to confession in preparation for their consecration.
The fruits of the consecration were already apparent before the act itself, Kerwin said. Students reread passages while in class, carry the book around in school, and reference it regularly in their classes.
“We’ve heard some really great conversations among the kids,” Kerwin said. “It is not a super hard book, but some of them are 10 or 11 years old, and they are chewing on this and really digesting the goodness of the Blessed Mother, the beauty of the Immaculate Conception and how she is a Mediatrix that takes us to Jesus. And I have seen them grow in their faith.”
The experience has also allowed the students to grow closer as a school community, Kerwin said.
“We are starting to see the way it is bearing fruit in the kids; they are drawing closer as a community because they are sharing time in fellowship and having these meaningful conversations,” Kerwin said. “They really have drawn more closely to the Blessed Mother. I see the Holy Spirit moving more through our community as they dive into their faith, as they entrust themselves more to the Blessed Mother. She is leading them to that, and so that’s been really incredible to witness because they are just naturally witnessing their faith to one another as they grow in it.”
Although Fr. Kurt led parishioners in a separate Marian consecration, Kerwin said many of the students read the book alongside their parents and reported back that they were spending more time in prayer with their families.
Eighth-grader Sophia Toma completed the consecration alongside her younger brother and her mother.
“We would all do it together at night — we would all talk about it and pray together, and it was a great way to grow closer to Mary as a family,” Sophia told Detroit Catholic.
Sophia said she has always loved Mary and was excited to grow closer to the Blessed Mother and become a better person through the process.
"I feel like I’ve been consecrated now, and I feel like I really have a mission,” Sophia said. “My mission is to pray to Mary every day, to always be closer to her, to always act like she wants me to act, to always remember that she is my spiritual mother, and just to do good deeds on earth.”
On the feast day, Fr. Kurt gathered the students in the chapel to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Before they read the consecration prayer and placed roses before her image, Fr. Kurt reminded students that Mary is, in fact, a mother to each of them.
“Mary will come and comfort you with the comfort that only a mother could give," Fr. Kurt told the students. "She will comfort you and tell you that her son Jesus, who makes all things new, will make everything OK. Today, on your consecration day, we thank God for giving us such a loving mother.”
Fr. Kurt encouraged the students to continue talking about Mary and handed out consecration renewal prayer cards and miraculous medals.
Kerwin expressed how proud she is to have watched her students grow in their faith and witness to one another. Students who did not participate this year have repeatedly asked if they will have a chance to do so next year, she said.
“Your lives are different now; you are not who you were yesterday,” Kerwin told the students. “So think about how you are going to witness this as people of faith.”
