Our Blessed Mother - Patron Saint of Catholic Event Planners?

I have been planning and implementing successful events that are authentically Catholic - faithful to the true teachings of the Catholic Church - for the past 25 years. One very important thing that I have learned over and over again is that, if we are doing our best to live in fidelity to the Church, Our Blessed Mother is always ready to offer her assistance. This is not just my discovery and this is not just any kind of help.

Through the centuries Christians seeking to more fully know, love and serve God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - have done so by consecrating their lives to Jesus through the Blessed Virgin Mary. But this isn’t just for individuals. This is also for groups of people - families, parishes, ministries, and businesses, etc. - that would like to follow Mary in doing the will of God within and through their activities - to “Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5)3. Mary excelled at this far beyond any other creature and she will help each group to do the same.

I BELIEVE OUR BLESSED MOTHER IS THE PATRON SAINT OF CATHOLIC EVENT PLANNERS

I was employed by Holy Trinity Catholic Church for fourteen years as the Adult Faith Coordinator. On the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary each year I consecrated myself and the entire Adult Faith Ministry to her. I believe that it is because of her that Adult Faith at Holy Trinity grew to be a vibrant ministry that offers many wonderful classes and large annual events involving 100’s, if not 1000’s of people. The preparation for each annual event was important so as each one would come up, I would form an event team to plan and implement it (e.g. Advent by Candlelight, Blossom Women’s Retreat, etc.) and that team and I would consecrate that particular event to her. We learned that Our Lady’s is always interceding for us with her Son so that each person involved - whether on the event team or attending the event as a participant - would have the opportunity to encounter and respond to his personal love for them. The fruit was always abundant.

No matter how busy we were, we would begin each meeting in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel with a time of intercessory prayer for the event concluding with one decade of the rosary as a sign of our consecration. This was never a waste of time! Quite the contrary. This union with Jesus and Our Lady helped us in so many ways; one of which was obtaining for us, from Jesus, the grace to “offer up” as a sacrifice everything we did to prepare for the event. This opened the floodgates of grace for us. As a result, there was an unending supply of energy and beautiful ideas to make each event extra special. There was so much love poured into every detail of each event; each person giving 100% of their effort to make the event a wonderful experience for each attendee. Our Lady taught us that Charity (Love of God above all things, and love of neighbor for the love of God) was the number one priority. She knew the struggles that we would encounter in trying to live this out with so many different people involved with different personalities, gifts and temperaments. Humanly speaking, it seemed that many times our best efforts would not be enough. No worry! Our Lady was there to help us in our weakness. All we had to do was call on her for help and she would provide what we needed.

Another thing we came to appreciate was her attention to detail. “What a joy is the thought that Mary prays for the needs that we overlook and helps us in difficulties that we don't realize are awaiting us." She would always bring to our minds, at the right time, what needed to be done. She quietly works in the background so that everything is set up for her Son to be glorified and his power is manifested. Think of the Wedding Feast of Cana (John 2:1-12). She alone noticed that the wine was running out and interceded with her Son for help. He responded to her request and provided the best wine. She will do the same for us if we consecrate the each event to her.

Personal Testimony

The first time we held the “Treasures of the Church - Sacred Relics Exhibit” at our parish is a great example of how Our Lady helps. Fr. Carlos Martins had never been to our parish before this event and so he was not familiar with the way the parish gathering spaces were set up. In a phone conversation, I briefly described each of the two possible rooms that he could use. He decided on the Saint Faustina Room. He requested that 20 rectangle tables be setup with no chairs. However, when he arrived a few hours before the event he felt that our other space, Loreto Hall, was a better place to hold this event. The only problem was that Loreto Hall was full of round tables and chairs and I was the only person there to set the room up as he requested. I felt very overwhelmed at the prospect of how much work needed to be done but I had previously consecrated this event to Our Lady so at this point I prayed a quick prayer asking her for help. Within a couple minutes, the door to Loreto Hall opened and a parishioner came in and asked me if I needed help with anything because he had the Our Lady of Mercy High School Basketball Team with him and they had some time to kill. They took all of the round tables and chairs down and set up the 20 rectangle tables. I was so grateful and amazed at our Lady’s gracious help.

Follow this link to a possible prayer to pray as a sign of your consecration. It is a prayer that begins with a consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and ends with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I have prayed this consecration prayer for my new business, Catholic Event Planning.