Benedict XVI entrusts and consecrates the world’s priests the Immaculate Heart of Mary

In Fatima, the Holy Father Pope Benedict, in the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, entrusted all the priests of the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

To revitalize the Church’s identity, we must revitalize the Church’s priests.

Here is the text, with my emphases and comments.  

   

Immaculate Mother,
in this place of grace,
called together by the love of your Son Jesus
the Eternal High Priest, we,
sons in the Son and his priests
,
consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart,
in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will.

We are mindful that, without Jesus,
we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5)
and that only through him, with him and in him,
will we be instruments of salvation
for the world.

Bride of the Holy Spirit,
obtain for us the inestimable gift
of transformation in Christ
.
Through the same power of the Spirit that
overshadowed you
,
making you the Mother of the Saviour,
help us to bring Christ your Son
to birth in ourselves too
.
May the Church
be thus renewed by priests who are holy,
priests transfigured by the grace of him
who makes all things new.

Mother of Mercy,
it was your Son Jesus who called us
to become like him:
light of the world and salt of the earth
(cf. Mt 5:13-14).

Help us,
through your powerful intercession,
never to fall short of this sublime vocation,
nor to give way to our selfishness,
to the allurements of the world
and to the wiles of the Evil One
.

Preserve us with your purity,
guard us with your humility
and enfold us with your maternal love
that is reflected in so many souls
consecrated to you,
who have become for us
true spiritual mothers.

Mother of the Church,
we priests want to be pastors
who do not feed themselves
but rather give themselves to God for their brethren,
finding their happiness in this.
Not only with words, but with our lives,
we want to repeat humbly,
day after day,
Our “here I am”.
[This is a reference to the Latin "adsum" response when a ordinands name is called at his ordination.]

Guided by you,
we want to be Apostles
of Divine Mercy,
glad to celebrate every day
the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar
and to offer to those who request it
the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Advocate and Mediatrix of grace,
you who are fully immersed
in the one universal mediation of Christ
,
[This seems to come close to "Co-redemptrix"]
invoke upon us, from God,
a heart completely renewed
that loves God with all its strength
and serves mankind as you did.

Repeat to the Lord
your efficacious word:
“They have no wine” (Jn 2:3),
so that the Father and the Son will send upon us
a new outpouring of
the Holy Spirit.
Full of wonder and gratitude
at your continuing presence in our midst,
in the name of all priests
I too want to cry out:
“Why is this granted me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
” (Lk 1:43).

Our Mother for all time,
do not tire of “visiting us”,
consoling us, sustaining us.
Come to our aid
and deliver us from every danger
that threatens us.
With this act of entrustment and consecration,
we wish to welcome you
more deeply, more radically,
for ever and totally
into our human and priestly lives.

Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth
in the desert of our loneliness,
let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness,
let it restore calm after the tempest,
so that all mankind shall see the salvation
of the Lord,
who has the name and the face of Jesus,
who is reflected in our hearts,
for ever united to yours!

Amen!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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13 Comments

  1. LouiseA says:

    “…we,sons in the Son and his priests,consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart..”

    The Fatima message is to promote Devotion and Consecration to the “Immaculate” Heart of Mary. I wonder why the Pope chose to consecrate priests to her “maternal” heart instead?

  2. Andy Milam says:

    Fr. Z,

    I completely agree, when I heard the bit about mediation, I went slack jawed for a moment, thinking that was where the Holy Father was going, but he stopped short.

    WOW!!!! Powerful!!!!

  3. ghlad says:

    This is awesome.

  4. Prof. Basto says:

    Louise,

    The Blessed Virgin Mary has one heart, and one heart only, as is normal in humans.

    That Heart, made of flesh, was raised to the Glory of Heaven upon the Blessed Mother’s triumphal Assumption.

    It is both an Immaculate Heart and a Maternal Heart. Maternal and Immaculate are adjectives, describing attributes of this one and the same heart. So, as long as consacration is done to It, this one and the same Heart, a consacration to the Immaculate Heart was performed.

    Mary has no Heart other than the Immaculate one.

  5. doanli says:

    “deserts of loneliness”….

    We’re I am grazing now. It’s very hard.

  6. juxta crucem says:

    “enfold us with your maternal love
    that is reflected in so many souls
    consecrated to you,
    who have become for us
    true spiritual mothers.”

    There are many hidden souls who have the joy of praying and suffering for priests in union with Mary.

    doanli, I am praying for you, so you are not entirely alone.

  7. jdskyles says:

    “adsum” is itself reference to the calling of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3.

  8. LouiseA says:

    Prof Basto:
    Of course Our Lady has one heart. However, she asked for the spread of devotion to “My Immaculate Heart”, not “My Heart”. She chose the adjective “Immaculate” for a reason, and clearly specified that particular adjective, and not any other. She could have chosen a thousand adjectives that she wanted to emphasize (such as “Queenly Heart, Loving Heart, Sorrowful Heart, Faithful Heart, Merciful Heart, etc.) but in her Wisdom she knew that devotion to her perfectly sinless (immaculate) Heart during these filthy times, when not even children are able to keep their innocence, is the remedy we need now.

    Similarly, Our Lord asked for the spread of devotion to His “Sacred” Heart, and did not use another adjective.

  9. spesalvi23 says:

    I don’t see the blessed Virgin being upset because of the use of a differnt adjective in the description of her heart. Especially by someone so clearly devoted to her.
    Maternal is a wonderful ajective and also very fitting for B16, considering that his own mother’s name was Maria.

  10. Tradster says:

    I would have felt the same as LouiseA except that Mary’s Immaculate heart was acknowledged in the very first word of the prayer. Because of that I have no problem with the adjective maternal.

  11. chironomo says:

    Between the Year for Priests leading up to this visit and the Consecration of Priests to the Heart of Mary during this vist, one begins to suspect as you indicated that the Holy Father has a particular concern about sin from within the Church. Whether that somehow relates to the “Third Secret” is anybody’s guess.

  12. irishgirl says:

    Beautiful words to the ‘Mother of Priests’, from the ‘Chief Shepherd’ himself!

    I hope these prayers get printed somewhere in a book! These would be wonderful to use!

  13. JohnE says:

    ‘I too want to cry out:
    “Why is this granted me,
    that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).”‘

    I truly believe that Our Lady’s intercession brought me back from the downward path I was on over 10 years ago. The whole prayer was beautiful, but this part especially touched me. I have prayed it many times.

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