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.