Blessed Virgin Mary: December 2010 Archives

Eternal Father, we place before you the project of forming the Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans seeking full communion with the Catholic Church. We thank you for this initiative of Pope Benedict XVI, and we ask that, through the Holy Spirit, the Ordinariates may become:

families of charity, peace and the service of the poor, centres for Christian unity and reconciliation, communities that welcome and evangelize, teaching the Faith in all its fullness, celebrating the liturgy and sacraments with prayerful reverence and maintaining a distinctive patrimony of Christian faith and culture.

Drawing on that heritage we pray:

Go before us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works, begun, continued and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life; though Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Pope Benedict made the annual visit to Spain's Square, the Spanish Steps as it's known, to lay a wreathe at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to offer a prayer of filial devotion and to encourage the faithful in our faith. His address follows:

Also this year we have made an appointment here, in Piazza di Spagna, to render homage to the Immaculate Virgin, on the occasion of her solemn feast. To all of you, who have come in great numbers, as well as all those taking part through radio and television, I address my cordial greeting. We are gathered around this historic monument, which today is all surrounded by flowers, sign of the love and devotion of the Roman people for the Mother of Jesus. And the most beautiful gift, and most pleasing to her, that we offer is our prayer, the one we bear in our hearts and which we entrust to her intercession. They are invocations of gratitude and supplication: of gratitude for the gift of faith and for all the good that we receive daily from God; and supplication for our different needs, for the family, health, work, for every difficulty that life has us encounter.

This prayer of consecration was written by a friend of mine, Father Mark. As he notes, "and may be helpful when one experiences a need to entrust particular souls in difficulty to the Immaculate Conception. As he notes, when a priest prays it, he may want to don the stole and pray it before a blessed image of the Most Holy Virgin. This intercessory consecration is appropriate for the unbinding and healing of situations marked by habitual sin and moral suffering. The Immaculate Virgin Mary is ever-ready to intervene in the lives of her children. She is the Mother of Mercy and the Mediatrix of All Graces."

In the name of the Father, + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Most holy Virgin Mary, -- thou whom the FATHER didst preserve from the first instant of thy conception from all evil and from the least shadow of sin,
-- thou whom the Precious Blood of JESUS didst render immaculate and all-beautiful, even before that same Blood was formed in thy virginal womb and poured out upon the altar of the Cross,
-- thou whom the HOLY GHOST didst fill full with every grace in view of the glorious motherhood of the Son of God for which thou wast created, -- thou art she who crusheth the head of the ancient serpent, thou art she who alone overcometh the evil that is in us and around us.

To thee, O Mary, thy Son hath entrusted the liberation of souls enchained by sin, the healing of wounded souls, and the sanctification of souls who have suffered evil's worst ravages.

Thou hast only to open thy immaculate hands over them, and they are shot through with the rays of thy purity. Through thee, entereth the light to shine in the darkest places. Through thee, souls are washed in a downpour of graces. Through thee, the Holy Spirit succoureth the weakest souls and giveth to the sterile a wonderful fecundity.