Book excerpt: Are you, like so many, seeking refreshment and restoration for your soul, as you walk through the desert of our present culture? Have you found only mirages and "false loves" as your soul thirsts for Living Water? Perhaps you already know Jesus and you recognize that He is exactly Whom your heart has been seeking. This book opens the pathway for a deeply personal and unique heart-to-heart relationship with Jesus. God tells us throughout the scriptures that His love for us is the love of a husband for his wife, spousal love. God desires to enter a marriage covenant with each and every human person. This short yet profound book, "Consecration to Christ the Bridegroom," leads the reader to a deep understanding of God's spousal love by describing, through Scriptures, art, and teachings of the saints including St. John Paul II, how the sacrificial life-giving love of Christ is spousal love in its purest form. This book contains 9 days of prayers and reflections leading up to your consecration and enthronement of Christ the Bridegroom as King and Spouse of your heart. Each of the 9 days includes a scripture reading and a reflection from the book, The Cantata of Love, a Verse by Verse Reading of The Song of Songs, by Ignatius Press. Thought-provoking questions invite the reader to meditate upon each day's content and apply to his/her own life. Through the 9-days of prayer and reflection, our hope is for the reader to foster a new relationship with Jesus; begin to develop heart to heart conversation and spousal prayer with Christ; and to respond to the Bridegroom's invitation to enter into a more personal and intimate spousal relationship. This consecration is a call to be set apart and made holy for Christ. As you grow in love of Him and drink deeply of His life-giving Love, you will realize that your emptiness is filled, your thirst is quenched, your aching heart is soothed and the spousal love you share with Him is overflowing into your relationships, your vocation, and your life.