The text of the act that Father Francis will pronounce on the feast of the Annunciation, on March 25, at 17.00 in the Vatican Basilica in communion with all the bishops of the world and with the whole universal Church.
O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, we turn to You in this hour of suffering. You are our Mother, you love us and you know us: nothing we carry in our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, we have experienced so many times your providential tenderness, your presence that restores our peace, because you always lead us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
We, however, lost our way to peace. We forgot the lessons of the last century's tragedies, the sacrifice of the millions who died in world wars. We have disregarded the commitments made as the Commonwealth of Nations and we continue to betray the dreams of nations for peace and the hopes of young people. We have become sick with greed, shut ourselves up in nationalist interests, let ourselves be paralyzed by indifference and selfishness. We preferred to disregard God, live in our falsehood, fuel our aggression, destroy lives and stockpile weapons, forgetting that we are custodians of our neighbor and the common home we share. Through the war, we torn the earth's garden to pieces, we wounded the heart of our Father with sin, who wants us to be brothers and sisters. We have become indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. And now with shame we say: forgive us, Lord!
In the misery of sin, in our hardships and weaknesses, in the mystery of the iniquities of evil and war, you, Holy Mother, remind us that God does not abandon us, but still looks at us with love, desiring to forgive us and raise us up. It is He who gave you and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and humanity. Because of God's goodness, you are with us and you lead us with tenderness even through the most complicated turns of history. So we resort to You, we knock on the door of Your Heart, we, Your beloved children, who you tirelessly visit at all times and encourage them to convert. In this dark hour, come to our aid and console us. Repeat to each of us: "Am I, your Mother, not here?" You know how to untangle our heart and the knots of our time. We trust in you. We are sure that you, especially in the time of trial, do not despise our prayers and come to our aid. This is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you hastened the hour of Jesus' action and announced His first sign in the world. When the feast turned to sorrow, you told him, "They have no wine" (Jn 2: 3). O Mother, repeat it to God, for today the guilt of hope is gone, joy has disappeared, brotherhood has blurred. We have lost our humanity, we have wasted peace. We have become capable of all violence and all destruction. How urgently we need your maternal intervention. So accept, O Mother, this plea.
You, Star of the Sea, do not let us become shipwrecked in a storm of war.
You, Ark of the New Covenant, inspire plans and paths of reconciliation.
You, "Heaven Earth", bring God's consent to the world.
Quench hatred, remove revenge, teach us to forgive.
Free us from war, save the world from the nuclear threat.
Queen of the Holy Rosary, awaken in us the thirst for prayer and love.
Queen of the human family, show the nations the way of brotherhood.
Queen of Peace, obtain peace for the world. May your crying, O Mother, touch our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us make that valley bloom again, which our hatred has dried up. And although the noise of weapons does not stop, your prayers may make us be at peace. May your maternal hands be a relief to those who suffer and flee under the weight of bombs. May your maternal embrace comfort those who have been forced to leave their homes and their homeland. Let your aching Heart move us to compassion and impel us to open the door and care for wounded and rejected humanity. Holy Mother of God, while you were standing under the cross, Jesus, pointing to the disciple next to you, said to you: "Here is your son" (Jn 19:26): thus he entrusted each one of us to you. Then to the disciple, to each of us, he said, "Behold your mother" (v. 27). Mother, we want to welcome you now in our lives and in our history. In this hour, exhausted and despairing, humanity stands with you at the cross. And I need to entrust myself to You, I need to consecrate myself to Christ through You. The Ukrainian people and the Russian people, who worship You with love, take refuge in You, and Your Heart beats for them and for all nations decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty. Therefore, we, Mother of God and our Mother, solemnly entrust and consecrate to Your Immaculate Heart ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act of ours, which we carry out with trust and love; make wars cease and bring peace to the world. Let the "yes" that flowed from your Heart open the gates of history for the Prince of Peace; we trust that through your heart there will still be peace. To you, then, we dedicate the future of the entire human family, the needs and expectations of nations, the anxieties and hopes of the world. Through you, let God's Mercy spread over the earth and let the sweet rhythm of peace shape our days anew. Woman who said "yes" to God and on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore God's harmony among us. Revive our dry hearts, You who are "the living fountain of hope". You, who weave the humanity of Jesus, make us builders of communion. You who have walked our paths, lead us along the paths of peace. Amen.
Transmission of the papal service of the act of consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25 from 17:00 on TVP 3. / link here /
