A very helpful way to go deeper into the meaning of the prayer, doce me passionem Tuam, is through preparing and making a consecration to the Most Holy Cross of Jesus. This page includes some suggestions on how to prepare for this consecration as well as the consecration prayer (below). The preparatory work is as important as the consecration itself and will make it more fruitful.
Preparation
Prior to making the consecration
If you prepare to make it well, the prayer of consecration below can help you enter more deeply into the mystery of Christ’s redemptive suffering, so as to personally experience the healing and liberating power of His Cross in your life. For the Cross of Christ always leads to the Resurrection.
The preparation for the consecration could involve a period of 33 days, representing each of the years that Christ lived on earth. Or it could be 14 days, representing each of the traditional Stations of the Cross. It could also involve the 40 days of Lent, making the consecration on Good Friday. If Easter this year has already passed and one does not want to wait until the following Lent, the consecration could also be done in the month of September when there are suitable feast days, such as the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross on September 14. There is value to renewing the consecration on an annual basis on Good Friday, and one could approach the preparatory period during Lent from a different angle every year.
To consecrate means to “set aside” for sacred use, as when objects are consecrated for use in the Church’s liturgy. In the Torah, the notion of consecration (Hebrew teleioÅ©n) means total dedication of something or someone to God. The consecration is a symbolic act—a means to an end—intended to cultivate devotion of the heart. There are many ways one could prepare, and we do not want to be too prescriptive here. We offer just a few ideas and suggestions that each person can tailor to one’s own circumstances. The purpose of the preparatory period is to allow sufficient time for us to understand, learn, and enter into each stage of Christ’s Passion.
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As part of the preparation, consider setting aside at least twenty to thirty minutes daily for prayer, though ideally one could do a daily Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament, focused on considering a different aspect of Christ’s Passion. One could begin by slowly meditating on the Passion narratives in the four Gospels. In our mental prayer we can imagine ourselves as another character in these scenes, for example, one of the bystanders or disciples.
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Similarly, one could use the traditional fourteen Stations of the Cross as a guide for prayer, meditating more deeply on just one of the Stations each day during the preparatory period. There are several good books of meditations on the Stations of the Cross, from St. John Henry Newman, St. Josemaria Escriva, Caryll Houselander, and Benedict XVI, among others, which may be helpful guides. Likewise, Blessed Ann Catherine Emmerich’s book, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, or Luis de la Palma’s The Sacred Passion are excellent books for meditation on this theme.
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Another approach could involve meditating on a different mystery of the Rosary each day for a minimum of twenty minutes (in addition to praying the Rosary). One might think that only the five Sorrowful Mysteries would be suitable for meditating on Christ’s sufferings; but in fact, the other fifteen mysteries are also imprinted, each in their own way, with the sign of the Cross. The Cross is present in every moment of Our Lord’s life, including the Joyful, Luminous, and Glorious Mysteries.
For God to become incarnate as a man in a fallen, sinful world itself constitutes a kind of humiliating suffering. The entire Rosary is a compendium on the life of Christ, and the Cross is imprinted on this life from the Incarnation to the Ascension. Jesus’ heart beats to the rhythm of the Hail Mary, and the Rosary is most pleasing to his ears; but we can also bring these mysteries of Christ’s life into our mental prayer as well, placing ourselves in the scenes they depict and drawing close to Christ’s sacred humanity.
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​These suggestions for preparing for the consecration are merely a guide, and each can be suitably modified to fit one’s own circumstances. Each person must walk their own personal journey with Jesus on the Way of the Cross. Each of us can seek prayerfully and personally to learn Our Lord’s suffering in communion with Him. One can search for decades for an answer in books, but ultimately the answer can only be found by letting Jesus into the deepest corners of one’s heart—by letting Him teach me about Hissuffering, not just mine.
Prayer
Consecration to the Most Holy Cross of Jesus
[Note: This prayer should be recited before a tabernacle, or before the exposed Host on the altar during a period of Eucharistic Adoration, unless due to extraordinary circumstances it is impossible to make it to a Catholic church.]
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Doce me passionem Tuam—teach me Your suffering.
Lord Jesus Christ, I consecrate my whole self, all that I am and all that I am not, all that I have and all that I lack, to Your Most Holy Cross. Your entire Passion—all Your terrible suffering—was for me, alone and individually. And You likewise prepare a place in Heaven for me, alone and individually. You did not embrace the Cross with any caveats or reservations. Help me to likewise take up and embrace the Cross daily, without reserve. May Your Cross be my Cross...
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...The heavy Cross that cut into Your shoulder and lower back as You carried it.
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...The rugged and jagged Cross from which You received countless splinters.
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...The Most Holy Cross soaked in Your precious Blood.
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May I never ignore or avoid the Cross, but embrace it daily in order to become one with You. I want to participate in Your Cross in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—the bloodless Calvary. I too desire to offer myself as a sacrifice on Your altar, to give You everything without reservation: what I love and what I hate, those whom I love and those who love me, those whom I scorn and those who scorn me, what I desire and what I fear, what I have and what I lack, all my virtues, and all my vices and sins. I give You my everything and my nothingness.
Grant me the grace to abandon myself completely to Your Divine Providence. If it be Your will, I accept being scorned and mocked and exiled. Give me the fortitude and perseverance I need for You, the courage to give You my whole life, the willingness even to be martyred for love of You. Give me the strength to take up the Cross daily and follow You—the blood-soaked Cross, the heavy and burdensome Cross, the rough Cross of jagged splinters and pain—the Most Holy Cross to which You were affixed not only by nails, but even more by Your love for me. From the wood of the manger to the wood of the Cross, You gave Yourself entirely to me. You were outstretched on that wood—the very material of Your trade—in a gesture of love; and with hammer and nails—the very tools of Your trade—You were fastened to the Cross.
You make us live by dying. You bore our sins in Your body and soul upon the Cross; by Your wounds we were healed. By the Cross alone You bless us: through suffering You confer Your wisdom, Your love, Your freedom, Your divine life. You desire that each of us bears the seal of Your Cross, which makes us beautiful in Your sight. When we join You on the Cross, we become alter Cristus, ipse Cristus—another Christ, Christ Himself.
Jesus, may Your Cross give me the strength to choose also to be nailed to it with You. May it detach me from created things so that I may be attached to Your will alone. May I stand upright and firm, keeping company always with Our Lady at the foot of the Cross. May the blood and water which flowed from Your side—pierced by the lance of my sins—wash me clean and unite me with You, the One I seek and the One I love.
I see the power of the living One who died and rose for me.
Doce me passionem Tuam—teach me Your suffering.
Amen.