Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

 O Mary, Mother of God, and our Mother, in this hour of violence and war we come to implore your help. You are truly our Mother, you love us, and you know us: nothing that we care about is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, often we have experienced your maternal tenderness along with your warm presence filling us with peace. We beg you to guide us always to Jesus, the Prince of Peace. 

Sadly, we and our world have wandered from the road to peace. We have forgotten the tragic lessons of the last century, the sacrifice of millions of dead and wounded in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments made as a Community of Nations and we have betrayed the peaceful dreams of peace among the family of nations and shattered the hopes of young people. We have fallen ill with greed, we have locked ourselves in nationalist interests, we have allowed our hearts to be hardened by indifference and paralyzed by selfishness. We preferred to ignore God, live with our falsehoods, feed aggression, suppress lives and accumulate weapons, forgetting that we are guardians of our neighbor and of our common home itself. We have torn apart the garden of the Earth with war, we have wounded with sin the heart of Our heavenly Father, who desires us to live as brothers and sisters. We have become indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. And with shame we say: forgive us, Lord! 

In the misery of sin, in our toil and fragility, in the mystery of the iniquity of evil and war, you, holy Mother, remind us that God does not abandon us, but continues to look on us with love, eager to forgive us and raise us up. It is He who has given you to us and placed in your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for humanity. By divine goodness you are with us and even in the most perilous twists and turns of history you lead us with tenderness. 

Mother Mary, we now have recourse to you, we knock at the door of your Heart. We are your dear children whom you do not tire of visiting and inviting to conversion in every age. In this dark hour, come to help and console us. Repeat to each of us: "Am I not here, who am your Mother?" You know how to untie the tangles of our heart and the knots of our time. We place all our trust in you. Especially in moments of great trial, we are confident that you will not ignore our cries for help and that you will come to our aid. 

This is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you hastened the hour of Jesus' public ministry and urged him to share his first sign with the world. When the feast turned into sadness, you said to him: "They have no wine" (Jn 2:3). Repeat that same message to God, O Mother, because today we have exhausted the wine of hope, our joy has disappeared, and our respect for human life is in jeopardy. We have lost our common humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We have become capable of all violence and destruction. We urgently need your maternal tenderness and care. 

Dear Mother Mary, attend to the sound of our cries for help. 
You, star of the sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the storm of war. 
You, the ark of the new covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation. 
You, "land of Heaven", bring God's harmony back to our world. 
Snuff out hatred, pacify revenge, teach us forgiveness. 
Deliver us from war, preserve the world from the nuclear threat. 
Queen of the Rosary, awaken in us the need to pray and to love one another. 
Queen of the human family, show all people the way to love each other as brothers and sisters.  
Queen of Peace, let peace reign in our world. 

May your sorrows, Dear Mother of God, soften our hardened hearts. Our sin and hatred have drained of life the precious valley we call our common home. May the tears you shed for us water the dry valley and let it teem again with life. And while the sound of the war drums is still heard in the land, may your prayers and ours pave the way to peace. Let your maternal hands tenderly caress those who suffer and flee in fear from the threat of enemy bombs. May your maternal embrace console those who are forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your sorrowful Heart move us with compassion and urge us to open our doors and our hearts to the wounded and discarded children of God. 

Holy Mother of God, while you were at the foot of the Cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple next to you, said to you: "Behold your son" (Jn 19:26): this is how he entrusted each one of us to you. Then to the disciple, to each one of us, he said: "Behold your mother" (v. 27). Mother, we now wish to welcome you into our lives and into our history. In this hour, humanity, exhausted and distorted, stands at the foot of the Cross with you. And we need to entrust ourselves to you, to consecrate ourselves to Christ through you. The Ukrainian people and the Russian people, who venerate you with love, turn to you in this hour, while your Heart beats for them and for all the peoples devastated by war, hunger, injustice, and misery. 

Mother of God and our Mother, we solemnly entrust and consecrate to your Immaculate Heart ourselves, the Church, and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act of ours that we carry out with trust and love, let the war cease, provide peace to the world. The “Yes” that sprang from your Heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace; we trust that again, through your Heart, peace will come. To you, therefore, we consecrate the future of the entire human family, the needs and expectations of peoples, the anxieties and hopes of the world. 

Through you may divine Mercy be poured forth on Earth and may the sweet sound of peace return to mark our days. Woman of the grand “Yes,” on whom the Holy Spirit has descended, bring back among us the harmony of God. Quench the dryness of our heart, you who "are a lively fountain of hope. You brought humanity to Jesus in your womb, bring us again to Him in Divine communion. You yourself have walked our dusty roads, guide our steps on the path of peace. Amen.