NATIONWIDE ACT OF CONSECRATION
For peace and against disasters
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone region in the planet. It is part of the Rim of Fire, prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Its archipelago situation makes it prone to tsunamis from the Pacific Ocean and China Sea. It is pummeled by an average of 20 typhoons a year, which have intensified due to climate change. Unlike Japan and other affluent countries, its disaster preparedness is good socially but not financially. Its only advantage is spiritual. It is the only Catholic country in Asia and can pray as a nation against disaster.
This is on the occasion of the campaign of the Philippine Church for an Act of Consecration by the nation and by all Filipinos to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to attain peace and avert disasters and other forms of evil in our era of confusion and conflicts.
This ultimate powerful communal prayer, an act of total oblation, to achieve peace and dispel disasters and evil is best exemplified by the message of Our Lady of Fatima to visionary Lucia, “But in the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father (and the remaining bishops) will consecrate Russia to Me. Russia will be converted and a period of peace will be given to mankind.”
Fatima scholars cite ‘Marian interventions’ towards world peace immediately after the consecration of Russia. First, the Cuban crisis was averted in 1961, the closest mankind had to a nuclear confrontation. The two averted attempts circa 1981 to assassinate Pope John Paul II, who consecrated Russia to Our Lady of Fatima, is a attributed by Fatima scholars to a Marian intervention. One attempt was during his visit to the Philippines.
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An Act of Consecration is ‘a total gift of self’, says Pope Pius XII. It has biblical roots and, for centuries, the goal of saints. Consecration means dedication or entrustment or surrender of one’s self, one’s life.
Fatima is the symbol of prayer and atonement for sins to avert the hand of God. The Third Secret of Fatima referred to a “bishop in white”, whom Sister Lucia later would say was Pope John Paul II, who would be saved from assassination. Archbishop Emeritus Tarcisio Bertone, SDB, later reported that the Pope was saved by ”a Mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path”. The Pope later gave the bullet to the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima who placed it in the crown of Our Lady of Fatima.
A series of Marian interventions began with Russian leader, Gorbachev, visiting Pope John Paul II, where he was touched by his dialogue with him. Three important events ensued. First, Gorbachev instituted détente as a unilateral policy towards establishing peace with the West. This led to the eventual break up of the Russian empire, and the end of the cold war. Second, Gorbachev opened up the churches in Russia and ended decades of suppression of the Church. Third, the break-up of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signaled the last of many events easing tensions between the US and Russia. All these were considered by Fatima scholars as Marian interventions towards world peace, attributed to the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary..
This is the basis of the Philippine Church’s current nationwide campaign to achieve peace and harmony, to avert disasters, famines, pestilence, wars, and other forms of evil. On June 8, 2013, the “National-Philippines Act of Consecration-Entrustment to the Immaculate Heart of Mary” was read in all cathedrals and churches nationwide. This will be done in four Saturdays from July to October, “to complete the FIVE FIRST SATURDAYS ASKED FOR BY THE BLESSED MOTHER OF FATIMA”.
LET US THEREFORE JOIN THE CHURCH AND THE NATION IN THIS IMPORTANT ACT OF CONSECRATION AT THIS ERA OF CONFUSION AND CONFLICTS, OF PREDICTED GLOBAL WARMING DISASTERS.
If we cannot go to church on first Saturdays, we can simply SAY THE PRAYER INDIVIDUALLY FIVE TIMES ON DIFFERENT DAYS ON OUR KEYBOARDS. It will have the same effect. There are many versions of the Act of Consecration. Below is a short version we can pray over the keyboard, and a longer version based on the formula used by Pope John Paul II on the Feast of the Annunciation in March 25, 1984. By Bernie V. Lopez. eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com // www.sisterraquel.com // sr.raquel.rvm@gmail.com
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ACT OF CONSECRATION OF THE SELF AND THE NATION
TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY.
Short Version.
For Internet Users and those who cannot go to church on Saturdays.
Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, we take this time, as a nation, and as individuals, to consecrate ourselves to Your Immaculate Heart in the name of Jesus, your Son. We entrust and dedicate and offer our lives and our nation to Jesus through you. We surrender ourselves to His will through you, hoping to be united to Him through you, oh Blessed Virgin of Fatima. We ask you to intercede for us to achieve peace. Protect us from sickness, disasters, wars and all forms of evil that is plaguing the world today. We ask you to intercede for us to your Son for the forgiveness of our sins, reparation for our sins, and conversion of sinners. In return, dear Jesus and Mary, we resolve, as a nation and as individuals, to atone for our sins and those of others by giving ourselves to others, especially the poor and the sick, sharing our wealth, no matter how meager, and avoiding to offend You, Lord . Through Our Lady of Fatima, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. To you be all honor and glory. Amen. Say five Hail Marys for peace in the Philippines and in the world, and to avert disasters, plagues, and all forms of evils.
Long Version.
For Internet Users and Church-goers.
ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
Lifted verbatim through the Internet.
To be recited jointly on 8 June 2013 in all cathedrals, churches, chapels in the Philippines with as many of the Catholic Faithful present. And, on the following four FIRST SATURDAYS, IN July, August, September, and October, to be jointly recited again, to complete the FIVE FIRST SATURDAYS ASKED FOR BY THE Blessed Mother of Fatima.
“We have recourse to your protection, o holy Mother of God.” As we recite the words of this antiphon with which the Church of Christ has prayed for centuries, we find ourselves today before you, our mother, in this Year of Faith. We , who make up the “Body of Christ” present in our land, recite the words of this present Act of Consecration and Entrustment, in which we gather, first of all, the hopes and anxieties of our Filipino people, at this moment of our history.
Mother of our people, we who rejoice in the name, “Pueblo amante de Maria, “ – a people who love Mary, bayang sumisinta kay Maria – you know all our sufferings and our hopes, you who have a mother’s awareness of all the struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, which afflict the world today. Mother of our people, accept the cry which we, deeply moved by the Holy Spirit, address directly to your heart.
Embrace, with the love of the Mother and Handmaid of the Lord, our people and our land, which now we entrust and consecrate to you, for we are truly concerned for the earthly and eternal destiny of every individual among us and for all our people.
“We have recourse to your protection, o holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities.”
Behold, as we gather before you, Mother of Christ, – as we gather before your Immaculate Heart, we desire, the Church of the Lord in our land, joined in heart and mind with all our people, isang bayang Pilipino, – to unite ourselves, which, for love of us, your Son made of himself to the Father, ‘ or their sake,’ he said,’I consecrate myself that they also may be consecrated in the truth [Jn 17:19]. We wish to unite ourselves with our Redeemer in this consecration for the world and for the entire human race, which, in his divine Heart, has the power to obtain pardon and to secure reparation.
The power of this consecration by your Son, Our Lord, lasts for all time and embraces all individuals, peoples and nations. Thus also it embraces our people and our land. The power of this consecration overcomes every evil that the spirit of darkness is able to waken, and has in fact awakened in our times, in the hearts of men and women in human history.
How deeply we feel the need for the consecration of our people, in union with Christ Jesus himself. For the redeeming work of our Redeemer must be shared in and by the world, by our own people, through the Church.
We turn to you, Mother of our Redeemer and our Mother: above all creatures may you be blessed, – you, the Handmaid of the Lord, who in the fullest way obeyed the divine call. Hail to you, who are wholly united to the redeeming consecration of your Son.
Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, hope and Love! Help us to live the truth of the consecration offered by Jesus your Son for the entire human family, and for us, the Filipino people and for our beloved land.
In entrusting to you, O Mother, our people, your “pueblo amante de Maria,” we entrust to you this very consecration itself, placing it in your motherly heart.
Immaculate Heart! Help us to conquer the threat of evil, which so easily enters and takes root in the hearts of people today, and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down on our country, and seem to block the paths toward the future!
From hatred, violence, conflicts which divide and destroy our people, deliver us. From the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us. From every kind of injustice in the life of society, deliver us. From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us. From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us. From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us.
Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry, laden with, the hopes and burdens, the sufferings of each one of us, and of all our people. Help us, with the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome and conquer all sin: individual sins, ‘social sins’ and ‘the sin of the world’, – sin in all its manifestations.
Let there be revealed once more, in our own history as a people, the infinite power of the Redemption, the power of God’s merciful Love! May it destroy the power of sin and evil among us! May it transform consciences! May it change hearts to the likeness of the Heart of Jesus, and your own heart! May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all, in our land and through all the world, the light of hope! O Mary, Mother of Jesus and our mother, our life, our sweetness and our hope!
Adapted for our 8 June 2013 “National/Philippines Act of Consecration/Entrustment to the Immaculate Heart of Mary” Shortened and directed to our present context, from the “official act of consecration” written by Blessed John Paul II himself 25 March 1984, Feast of the Annunciation. It was meant to be offered by himself and all the bishops of the Catholic Church. Our Philippine hierarchy, led by Cardinals Jaime Sin of Manila and Ricardo Vidal of Cebu, in the name of all of us in the Church in the Philippines, took official part in this solemn act of offering.
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ADDENDUM
Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
To the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him. I therefore take You, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death. Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the strokes of his righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in You, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty,but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty. Remove from me all that can displease You or resist Your holy will; let your pure love imprint Your image so deeply upon my heart,that I shall never be able to forget You or to be separated from You. May I obtain from all Your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Your Heart, for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying in bondage to You. Amen.
