Pope will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of MaryIn a letter addressed to all the pastors of the local Churches, the Pope emphasizes that the Consecration "... is a gift of the Holy Spirit.It is intended as a gesture of the universal Church, which in this dramatic moment brings to God, through the mediation of his and our Mother, the cry of pain of all those who suffer and implore an end to violence, and entrusts the future of humanity to the Queen of Peace. For this reason, I invite you to join in this act, calling priests, religious and other faithful to communal prayer in the sacred places on Friday, March 25, so that the holy People of God may raise their supplication to their Mother in a unanimous and urgent manner.".
For this reason, the Holy See has sent the text that will accompany this act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary of the nations of Ukraine and Russia, to ask for the gift of peace and the cessation of invasive actions on the part of Russia.
Marian consecration
In Rome, the act of consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary will take place in the context of the Celebration of Penance, which will be celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica at 17:00, Rome time. The consecration, in particular, is scheduled for around 6:30 pm. The same act, on the same day, will be performed in Fatima by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, Pontifical Almoner, as envoy of the Holy Father.
The text to be used in the ceremony is as follows:
O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, we, in this hour of tribulation, have recourse to you. You are our Mother, you love us and know us, nothing of our concerns is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, many times we have experienced your provident tenderness, your presence that restores our peace, because you always lead us to Jesus, Prince of Peace.
We have lost the path to peace. We have forgotten the lesson of the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of millions of fallen in the world wars. We have neglected our commitments as a Community of Nations and are betraying the dreams of peace of the peoples and the hopes of the young. We have become sick with greed, we have locked ourselves up in nationalistic interests, we have allowed ourselves to be hardened by indifference and paralyzed by selfishness. We have preferred to ignore God, to live with our falsehoods, to feed aggression, to suppress lives and to accumulate weapons, forgetting that we are the custodians of our neighbor and of our common home. We have destroyed with war the garden of the earth, we have wounded with sin the heart of our Father, who loves us brothers and sisters. We have become indifferent to everyone and everything but ourselves. And with shame we say: forgive us, Lord.
In the misery of sin, in our weariness and frailty, in the mystery of the iniquity of evil and war, you, Holy Mother, remind us that God does not abandon us, but continues to look upon us with love, eager to forgive us and raise us up again. It is He who has given you to us and has placed in your immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for humanity. By his divine goodness you are with us, and even in the most adverse vicissitudes of history you lead us with tenderness.
That is why we have recourse to you, we knock at the door of your Heart, we, your beloved children whom you never tire of visiting and inviting to conversion. In this dark hour, come to our aid and comfort us. Repeat to each one of us: "Am I not here who am your Mother? You know how to untie the tangles of our hearts and the knots of our time. We place our trust in you. We are sure that you, especially in these moments of trial, do not despise our supplications and come to our aid.
This is what you did in Cana of Galilee, when you hastened the hour of Jesus' intervention and introduced his first sign into the world. When the feast had turned to sadness, you said to him: "They have no wine" (Jn 2:3). Repeat it again to God, O Mother, because today we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has vanished, fraternity has been watered down. We have lost humanity, we have spoiled peace. We have become capable of all kinds of violence and destruction. We urgently need your motherly help.
Accept, O Mother, our supplication.
You, star of the sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the storm of war.
You, ark of the new covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.
You, "earth from Heaven", bring God's harmony back into the world.
Extinguish hatred, appease vengeance, teach us to forgive.
Deliver us from war, preserve the world from the nuclear threat.
Queen of the Rosary, awaken in us the need to pray and to love.
Queen of the human family, show the peoples the path of fraternity.
Queen of peace, obtain peace for the world.
May your tears, O Mother, move our hardened hearts. May the tears you have shed for us make this valley that our hatred has dried up bloom. And while the noise of arms does not mute, may your prayer dispose us to peace. May your motherly hands caress those who suffer and flee under the weight of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those who are forced to leave their homes and their country. May your afflicted Heart move us to compassion, impel us to open doors and take care of wounded and discarded humanity.
Holy Mother of God, while you were at the foot of the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple beside you, said to you: "Behold your son" (Jn. 19:26), and so he entrusted us to you. Then he said to the disciple, to each one of us: "Behold your mother" (v. 27). Mother, we want to welcome you now in our life and in our history. At this hour humanity, exhausted and overwhelmed, is with you at the foot of the cross. And it needs to entrust itself to you, to consecrate itself to Christ through you. The Ukrainian people and the Russian people, who venerate you with love, have recourse to you, while your Heart beats for them and for all peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and misery.
Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, we solemnly commend and consecrate to your Immaculate Heart our persons, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act of ours, which we perform with trust and love, make war cease, provide the world with peace. The "yes" that flowed from your Heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of peace; we trust that, through your Heart, peace will come. To you, then, we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and aspirations of peoples, the anxieties and hopes of the world.
Through you, may divine Mercy be poured out upon the earth, and may the sweet beat of peace once again mark our journeys. Woman of Yes, upon whom the Holy Spirit descended, bring us again the harmony of God. You who are the "living fountain of hope," dispel the dryness of our hearts. You who have woven the humanity of Jesus, make us builders of communion. You who have trodden our paths, guide us in the ways of peace. Amen.
