Book excerpt: There are many books that have been written as aids in preparing for "consecration" or "entrustment" to Mary. This present book, while enriched by these approaches, nonetheless seeks to express a different word...or, more accurately, to express this same word in a different way. It is a response to the desires of a number of persons (and to the sense that there are many such persons) who want to go deeper in a life of entrustment to Mary, to grow ever more in intimacy with her and her Son.How can we learn to let ourselves be looked upon by our loving God and healed by his gentle touch? We can allow Mary into our lives, she who was looked upon by God in the most intense of ways, chosen to be Daughter, Bride, and Mother of God. We can allow her to foster this receptivity within us, she who is, above everything else, a little child of the heavenly Father. And here she is indeed not raised up far from us, but right at our side, a little one just as we are little. She knows, more than anyone else, what it means to be a child of God.In being looked upon with love by the Virgin Mother, as well as especially by the heavenly Father, we will find ourselves healed, freed, and transformed, and will discover that we too are beginning to look upon others with eyes of love, within the light that has first bathed us in its radiance.This emphasis on heart-healing through relationship with Mary-this is the approach of this book, which is intended either to be an avenue for entrusting oneself to Mary for the first time, or for renewing and deepening this entrustment. It does this not by focusing on the external elements of such consecration, which can be found elsewhere (such as the historical development or devotional practices), but on seeking to lead the reader into a more intimate relationship with God through the Virgin Mary.These reflections are, thus, intended to help bring all that we are, our brokenness as well as our beauty, to Mary, who will carry us to the healing and cherishing love of the Trinity. In this way, hopefully, a deeper, more spontaneous, and more intimate relationship with Mary will develop, allowing her to free us from everything that hinders us from rejoicing in the joy of being children of God. And, of course, in her we will find ourselves abiding ever more deeply against the loving Heart of Jesus, held by him close to the Father, and sharing with them the Spirit of love who first overshadowed Mary in the beginning of this beautiful story.