37. Consecration Of The Church And The World To The Blessed Virgin Mary
O you, who more than any other human being
have been consecrated to the Holy Spirit,
help your Son's Church to persevere
in the same consecration,
so that she may pour out upon all men
the ineffable benefits of redemption
and of sanctification
for the liberation of the whole of creation [cf. Rom 8:21].
You, who were with the Church in the beginning of her mission,
intercede for her in order that,
going all over the world,
she may continually teach all the nations
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
May the Word of Divine Truth
and the Spirit of Love
find an opening in the hearts of men,
who, without this truth
and without this love
really cannot live the fullness of life.
You, who have known in the fullest way
the power of the Holy Spirit,
when it was granted to you
to conceive in your virginal womb
and to give birth to the Eternal Word,
obtain for the Church
that she may continue to give new birth
through water and the Holy Spirit
to the sons and daughters
of the whole human family,
without any distinction of language,
race, or culture,
giving them in this way
the "power to become children of God" [Jn 1:12].
You, who are so deeply
and maternally bound to the Church,
preceding the whole People of God
along the way of faith,
hope and charity,
embrace all men who are on the way,
pilgrims through temporal life
towards eternal destinies,
with that love which the Divine Redeemer himself,
your Son, poured into your heart from the Cross.
Be the Mother of all our earthly lives,
even when they become tortuous,
in order that we may all find ourselves,
in the end, in that large community
which your Son called the fold,
offering his life for it as the Good Shepherd.
You, who are the first handmaid
of the unity of the body of Christ,
help us, help all the faithful,
who feel so painfully
the drama of the divisions of Christianity,
to seek with constancy the way
to the perfect unity of the Body of Christ
by means of unconditional faithfulness
to the Spirit of Truth and Love,
which was given to them by your Son
at the cost of the cross and of death.
You, who have always wished to serve!
You who serve as mother of the whole family
of the children of God,
obtain for the Church that,
enriched by the Holy Spirit
with the fullness of hierarchical
and charismatic gifts,
she may continue with constancy
towards the future along the way
of that renewal which comes from
what the Holy Spirit says
and which found expression in the teaching of Vatican II,
assuming in this work of renewal everything
that is true and good,
without letting herself be deceived
either in one direction or in the other,
but discerning assiduously
among the signs of the times
what is useful for the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Mother of men and peoples,
you know all their sufferings
and their hopes.
You feel in a motherly way
all the struggles between good and evil,
between the light and the darkness
which shakes the world
accept our cry
addressed in the Holy Spirit
directly to your heart
and embrace with the love of the Mother
and the Handmaid of the Lord
the peoples who await this
embrace the most and likewise the peoples
whose consecration you, too,
are particularly awaiting.
Take under your motherly protection
the whole human family
which we consecrate to you, O Mother,
with affectionate rapture.
May the time of peace and freedom,
the time of truth,
justice and hope,
approach for everyone.
O you,
who through the mystery of your particular holiness,
free of all stain from the moment of your conception
feel in a particular deep way that
"the whole creation has been groaning in travail." [Rom.8:22],
while, "subjected to futility,"
it hopes that it will be
"set free from its bondage to decay" [Rom.8:20-21],
You contribute unceasingly
to the "revealing of the sons of God,"
for whom "the creation waits with eager longing." [Rom. 8:19],
to enter the freedom of their joy [cf. Rom.8:21].
O Mother of Jesus,
now glorified in heaven in body and in soul,
as the image and beginning of the Church,
which is to have its fulfillment
in the future age here on earth,
until the day of the Lord comes [cf. 2 Pet. 3: 10],
do not ceases to shine
before the pilgrim people of God
as a sign of sure hope and consolation (cf. Lumen Gentium 68).
Holy Spirit of God,
Who are worshipped and glorified
with the Father and the Son!
Accept these words of humble consecration
addressed to You in the heart of Mary of Nazareth,
Your bride and mother of the Redeemer,
who the Church too calls her mother,
because right from the Upper Room at Pentecost
she has learned from her own motherly vocation!
Accept these words of the pilgrim Church,
uttered amid toils and joys,
fears and hopes,
words which are the expression
of humble and confident trust,
words with the Church,
forever consecrated to You,
Spirit of the Father
and of the Son,
in the Upper Room at Pentecost,
does not cease to repeat together with you
to her divine Bridegroom.
Come!
"The Spirit and the Bride say to the Lord Jesus
'Come..." [cf. Rev. 22:17].
"Thus the Church is seen to be
a people brought into unity of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit" (Lumen Gentium, 4).
Thus we repeat today:
"Come", trusting in your motherly intercession,
O Clement, O Loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Pope John Paul II ,prayed before the icon of Our Lady, in Salus Populi Romani, on December 8,1990.
