27 years ago today, Pope St. John Paul II issued one of his most powerful encyclicals, Evangelium Vitae, latin for, the “Gospel of Life” written to reaffirm the value and inviolability of every human life and to appeal to all people to respect, protect, love, and serve every human life.
No doubt, it was no coincidence that he chose this Solemnity of the Annunciation for the encyclicals’ promulgation for as the Sainted Pope wrote: “The one who accepted "Life" in the name of all and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin Mother; she is thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel of life. Mary's consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow on humanity (cf. Jn 10:10). Through her acceptance and loving care for the life of the Incarnate Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation to final and eternal death.”
The Solemnity of the Annunciation celebrates that moment in which the Virgin of Nazareth chose life, the moment in which life chose her, and the moment that life took flesh within her.
Life chose her. God, the Author of Life, chose her to become the Mother of Eternal Life. This is why St. John Paul draws the connection between the Annunciation and Good Friday. He writes, “The "yes" spoken on the day of the Annunciation reaches full maturity on the day of the Cross, when the time comes for Mary to receive and beget as her children all those who become disciples, pouring out upon them the saving love of her Son: "When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!' " (Jn 19:26).
The motherhood which begins at her Annunciation reaches full maturity, he says, when she becomes the Mother of all the living, all those brought to new life by the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ.
She said yes to be Christ’s Mother, and implicitly, she said yes to be our mother. And we are to become like her, instruments of life, bearers of life, evangelists for life.
Today, Holy Father Pope Francis invites us to join him in praying for life, that the life of Christ may touch and transform a very troubled part of our world, Russia and Ukraine. So, in just a few moments, in union with our Holy Father and the Bishops, I will recite the Act of Consecration, in a plea to God that life may prevail in our world and in our hearts.
May we be servants of life today and all days, by allowing the “fiat”—the “yes”—the acceptance of God’s will of Our Lady, to resound and resonate and be repeated in our lives, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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Act of Consecration
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Basilica of Saint Peter
25 March 2022
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.
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That through Immaculate Mary, Queen of Peace, hatred, violence, and cruelty will cease in the world. Let us pray to the Lord.
That Mary’s maternal care and heavenly intercession will raise us to the moral greatness befitting true children of God. Let us pray to the Lord.
For blessings on all expectant mothers, newborn infants, and young families. Let us pray to the Lord.
That from the moment of conception all children will be preserved from bodily harm; for the overturning of unjust laws that permit the destruction of innocent life; and that the minds of all may be enlightened to know the dignity of every human life. Let us pray to the Lord.
For all those who have died, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for all who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered. Let us pray to the Lord.
We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.
