Happy Hypostatic Union Day!
(Otherwise known as the Solemnity of the Annunciation.)
Our Holy Father out of his devotion to our Blessed Mother has sought to answer again the request of Our Lady of Fatima for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. I have seen many debates regarding whether her request was satisfied by any of the previous consecrations that have been made. I have heard specifically that it cannot be satisfied until every single Bishop throughout the world in union with the Pope makes this consecration.
The debate around private revelation often seems to me to wander far too near the realm of superstition for my comfort. However, I do want to bring your attention to one important point regarding that stipulation for the request to be fulfilled: think of the state the Church would be in if all of the Bishops were in that kind of union with the Bishop of Rome. What then would the Church herself look like?
Remember, though, that every baptized person is part of the Mystical Body of Christ. If you belong to the Church, you are in a sense Church. For the Church is not some abstraction beyond us, but a physically enfleshment of a spiritual reality, which is the gift of Christ to us and to His Father: we are Church.
Therefore, it is on my heart this day to ask you, if you have not already done so today, to consecrate yourself as Church and on behalf of the Church, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. All that you give to her she will give to Christ and He will accept most graciously this fiat of your heart as He did that of His Mother, allowing Him to become Man in her womb: by your consecration, then, you invite Him to reside more fully in your soul.
For that consecration, I propose you use first the words of the prayer given by our Holy Father, and then a personal consecration of yourself, which follows:
ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
by Pope Francis
O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you. As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns. We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbour’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!
Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity. By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.
We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We are your beloved children. In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times. In you we place our trust. We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.
That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!
Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.
Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.
Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.
Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.
Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.
Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.
O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace. May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.
Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26). In this way he entrusted each of us to you. To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27). Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history. At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.
Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.
Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen.
ACT OF PERSONAL CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
Once more I say to you, Holy Mother, to whom it was announced by the Archangel Gabriel that you would bear the Son of God in your womb, that I consecrate myself today to your Immaculate Heart. I make this total offering of myself to you as part of the Church and on behalf of the Church that my life may serve to build up the Kingdom of God in this world and draw all souls to heaven by His mercy. Receive, Loving Mother, this consecration for the glory of God my Father, as I trust my life entirely to His providence in union with Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit through your intercession this day and forever. Amen.
