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 addresses

to 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.