Prayer that Pope Francis will use to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to Mary
To your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.
The Vatican has released the prayer that Pope Francis will pray on Friday, March 25, to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in a ceremony at 5 pm, Rome time.
The prayer speaks of various of the devotions of Our Lady, including, for example, her message at Guadalupe, and her advocation as Undoer of Knots. It calls on her with various of her titles from the Litany of Loreto.
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 neighbor’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.
At this dark hour, help us and
grant us your comfort.
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.
May the tears you shed for us
make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew.
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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