Marian Consecration

We are preparing to celebrate Our Lady's presentation in the Temple - the first consecration of herself to God. Consecration, from consecrare means to make holy, to set aside for God alone. All consecrations are really a living out of our baptismal consecration in a specific way - marriage is the consecration of husband and wife; we have priestly consecration, and the consecration of religious men and women. But the oldest type of consecration in the Church was to Our Lady. The Sub Tuum is the oldest known prayer - actually an act of consecration to Our Lady. St. John Chrysostom in the 4th century consecrated the city of Constantinople to her.
Recently we listened to a talk by Mr. Jerome Coniker, who with his wife founded the Family Consecration, about the power of Marian consecration. This greatly inspired us to renew our own total consecration as a community to Our Lady, for the feast of her Immaculate Conception. We hope others will do the same, as our country is in great need of her protection.
Our Lord's first request for the consecration of the world to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart came through a Belgian mystic, Berthe Petit. Her life is very beautiful and inspiring. In December 1909 Our Lord told her: "The world must be consecrated to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother as it is to Mine." Our Lord warned that this must be done to prevent the world from going to war. This was brought to the attention of Cardinal Mercier, who approved wholeheartedly. He tried to bring it to the attention of Pope Pius X as the consecration must be performed by the Pope, but unfortunately he was not too favorable. It was obvious to everyone though, that the whole of Europe was on the verge of war - World War I - and the Pope, who tried so hard in every other way to prevent it, died of a broken heart. We know how Our Lady herself then came in 1917 to Fatima, saying the God wished the world to be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart (which she showed pierced with thorns, and therefore also sorrowful) in order to prevent not only a worse war, but the spread of atheistic communism. But the messages did not get spread much at all until after World War II, when there was a great deal of work done. Pope Pius XII made an act of Consecration, in fact, several. Various religious Orders did the same, as well as Catholic countries. The Dominican Order made theirs in 1949, and each year we are to renew this act on the Feast of the Rosary. (The present Master of the Order, Fr. Carlos, renews this particular act of Consecration to Our Lady frequently.) In Poland, as Communism struggled to destroy the Church, the Bishops (including Wojtyla!) set up a special program to prepare for consecration. Indeed, this is an essential part, which sometimes is overlooked. It started on the local level, with individuals and families being instructed over a period of time. Then whole parishes, dioceses, and then the whole Polish nation was consecrated to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart. And she certainly watched over them.
After the attempt on his life, while he was recovering, Pope John Paul asked his dear friend, Bishop Paul Hnilica, to bring him the messages of Fatima. After much study and prayer, he realized the important place Russia had in Our Lady's peace plan. He was determined to make the Consecration of Russia and the world to her Immaculate Heart exactly as she asked. But this meant that all the bishops of the world must make the Act of Consecration together with him. As he began to prepare, he met with a lot of resistance. We remember how in 1983, we received a letter from the Vatican explaining the Pope's desire to proclaim 1984 a Marian Year, and to have the Act of Consecration. All the steps were laid out, yet to our surprise and sorrow, we heard nothing about it from the diocese, or anywhere else. When the day came, the Archbishop performed the Act of Consecration in a semi-private ceremony! Yet, as we know, the Holy Father did perform the Act of Consecration, in Rome, with the statue from Fatima brought with special ceremonies. Almost all the bishops were there. He was in constant touch with Sr. Lucia to see that all was done in accord with God's desires. Afterwards he asked Sr. Lucia if it was accepted and she said "Yes, and you will see the effects of this soon."
If the Pope believed and said it was accepted, then it must be, as he is the highest representative of God on earth. No one else has the authority or power to decided otherwise. But some point out that Russia was not mentioned. True, but the Pope fully wanted to do so. Under great pressure he had to change the wording and only allude to Russia, ("In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and nations which particularly need to be thus entrusted and consecrated,") but it was fully in his conscious act that she was consecrated. And he had recourse to another way of getting around the difficulty. It is Bishop Hnilica who describes how the Pope sent him to Russia to make the Act of Consecration of Russia, in Russia! In Moscow, at the exact same time that the Pope was making the Act of Consecration in Rome! You can read the whole story in the book, "Russia, Fatima and Pope John Paul II" by Timothy Tindale-Robertson. This link gives the whole of Chapter 6. We post the part about making the Consecration below.
http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/ttindalr/ttindalr.html

But then, on the day of the consecration of Russia, I was in Moscow, and I performed the consecration in Moscow, in spiritual union with the Holy Father! How could this happen? I worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. In February 1984, I was with her in Calcutta. Because the Soviet officials there didn't know me, I applied for a visa to Moscow for March 22 to 25, and I received it! Mother Teresa asked all her sisters to pray. Those sisters said a novena for the consecration. Accompanied by a priest, whom I ordained for Russia at Fatima just a few months before, I arrived at the airport in Moscow at four o'clock in the morning. The controlling inspector asked me for my passport, and inquired if I was the person in the photograph. I had an Italian passport and I answered in Italian. The inspector didn't understand me, but I realized I had to pretend to be an Italian. Then he began to telephone. Outside it was ten degrees below zero. But it wasn't cold for me, I was sweating, perhaps more than I am now under the sun. The priest beside me was sweating too. Jokingly, he had said to me in Calcutta, "Father Paul, we are going to Moscow for four or five days, but perhaps it will turn into fourteen years in Siberia." It seemed that he might be right. I took out my Rosary, which Mother Teresa had given me, and I began to pray. The inspector was inside still phoning. But, thanks be to God, no one answered. It was four o'clock in the morning. The people that he tried to call slept well. The inspector didn't give up. He came out and asked me some questions. I answered again, "Si, si." He disappeared and phoned again. For a very long time. I had prayed nearly the whole Rosary and I said to the Mother of God, "I am totally in your hands. May the will of the Lord be done." When the official still didn't get any answer, he became very angry. He hung up, stamped my passport and said, "Beat it!" But after that came the baggage check. They searched the bag in which I had my episcopal cross, Bible, and different medals. I had hundreds of miraculous medals of the Mother of God and a few medals of the Vatican with me, perhaps sixty. The soldier took them in his hand and I could see that he liked them. He asked me: "What are these?" I told him, "Souvenirs from Rome." And I said, "Comrade, if you like them, you may take some." And he took some. I can testify that the Rosary and the medals opened the gates of Moscow for me.
The high point of my stay in Moscow was the feast of the Annunciation of Our Lady It was a Saturday, and the Kremlin was open to tourists. So I planned it. I was a tourist too. But already at the entrance I had difficulties. I was supposed to hand over my bag with the "certain things" in it for safekeeping. The guard said, "That must remain here." That I didn't like at all. So I begin to chat with him: where does he come from, does he have children, what are their names? "Konstantinus and Michael."I congratulated him: "You have selected beautiful names." (They are Christian names.) "Where are your children staying?" "With Babushka (Grandmother)."There they are in good hands." (The grandmothers in Russia are mostly still believers.) He became more and more friendly. At last I said to him, "You know, comrade, I need this bag. Inside there are personal things. And he said, "All right, an exception. Go!" So I entered the first church. In the Kremlin all the churches had been changed into museums. I asked the attendant: "What church is this?" "The church of Saint Michael!" she answered with enthusiasm. "A church of Saint Michael, how great," I answered, and then I asked, "Do you know who Michael is?" "Yes, he is an archangel." This she said with great enthusiasm. I asked further, "Are you a believer?" She answered bravely, "Yes, I'm a believing woman." And I said, "I too am a believer." But I didn't say who I was. To confess her faith look a lot of courage.
The name Michael means "Who is like God?" Who is as great as God, as good as God? Today a struggle against God has broken out in the whole world, not only in Russia, but also in the West, where I come from. But for us as Christians it is the sign of victory. Nobody is like God. We will triumph. And I said, "My name is Michael too." (I took it at my ordination.) And she said, "Then this is also your church. Welcome." Can you see you how our dear Lord sometimes jokes? So I entered my church. I went to the altar of St. Michael, I took out the Communist newspaper Pravda from my bag and I spread it out. However, between the pages of Pravda was L'Osservatore Romano with the text of the Pope's consecration of Russia. And I began to pray, "We have recourse to your protection. . ." and "we are imploring you, O Holy Mother of God. . ." I think those are the most beautiful Marian prayers. You should pray them often! There, in a church of the Kremlin, I united myself with the Holy Father and with all the bishops of the world; and so, in union with them, I consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
After that I went to the Marian church of the Assumption of Our Lady Here I repeated the consecration at the altar of the Mother of God. On the opposite side there is the throne of the Patriarch. I put a medal on top of it and I said to our Lady, "As soon as possible you have to bring the true patriarch to this throne." Again I took out the Communist newspaper with L'Osservatore Romano inside, united myself spiritually with the Holy Father and with all the other bishops, and said the prayers again attentively I said Holy Mass in this church too! How could I do that? Well, I pretended to take a photo. An empty bottle of aspirin tablets was my chalice. I arranged wine and a few drops of water so that they were handy. The hosts were in a little nylon bag. That's all that is necessary for a Holy Mass: bread and wine. The Latin text of the Mass for the feast of the Annunciation of Mary was in the pages of Pravda. Pravda means truth. Maybe that was the first time the whole truth was in that newspaper - the text of the Annunciation of the Lord to Mary.
That was the most moving Holy Mass of my entire life. It left me shaken. I felt the great power of God, God's love, God's kindness. Communism to me seemed so small; all dangers were so little, they didn't exist any more. Only God and Mary. At the Offertory I renewed the consecration of Russia to Mary. I said one part of the consecration prayer right after the Consecration of the bread and wine, when the living Savior was present. It was the part where it is written: "In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and nations which particularly need to be thus entrusted and consecrated," (namely the nations of Russia).
When I told all this to the Holy Father, he was convinced that it was a sign for him. He had great difficulties getting even some of the bishops and cardinals in Rome to perform that consecration. Once I spoke with Cardinal Ratzinger for two hours on a plane. As you know, he is the right hand man of the Holy Father. When I told him all of this, he also said that it was not easy to get this consecration through. As I said, it was a sign for the Holy Father. God wants this consecration. For He even sent a Catholic bishop to Moscow on that date in order to perform the consecration there, together with all the bishops of the world. The Holy Father said to that bishop, "On that day, Paul, the Mother of God led you by the hand." "No, Holy Father," I answered, "she carried me in her hands, in her arms."
I'm sure I said the prayer "We have recourse to your protection" and "Under your shield" at least one hundred times in the streets of Moscow, on the trains and on the buses. Every Christian should say these prayers every day for the conversion of atheists, but also for himself, and he should offer his own crosses and problems as gifts to God. This is the victory of Mary. She wants to activate all her children for this victory, for the conversion of Russia. Not the destruction of Russia, but its conversion. Again and again I stood in Red Square, in front of the tomb of Lenin, where soldiers keep an honor guard. There are lots of flowers there. There again, I took out a copy of the Communist newspaper, Pravda, only two steps away from the soldiers. They thought I was devotedly studying Russian science. But I prayed and said to our Blessed Mother, "These soldiers are also your children. They and those flowers are here for your honor, not for this mummy of Lenin." I said the prayer for the consecration of Russia there too. While I was walking across Red Square, I prayed the Rosary and the Veni Creator Spiritus. At one side of the Square there was a huge building with the inscription: "Communism will triumph." "No," I said, "Christ has triumphed. He will win again through Mary!"
The next day we went to Sagorsk. Sagorsk is the spiritual center of the Orthodox Church. We were at the grave of Saint Sergius and I was very impressed. So many people prayed there. I have never experienced anything like this in my entire life: "Gospodi pomiluj, Gospodi pomiluj!-Lord, have mercy, have mercy, have mercy!" About one hundred times. I said to Our Lord, "You would have a stone instead of a heart, if you didn't listen to these people and answer them soon." Further I said, "You would be worse than the judge in the Gospel, who didn't care about God or the people, but finally answered the widow only to have peace. You have to answer these people, at least to have rest from them." I'm sure the victory will come soon, the answer to so many prayers. For seventy years the people of this nation have been asking for the mercy of our Lord and praying to the Blessed Mother. In no country on earth is she so loved as in Russia, and nowhere are so many hearts praying to her as in Russia. Often I have said to Satan with regard to Communism, "You made a strategic mistake when you chose Russia as the locus of the battle. Russia is the country of Our Lady. Here she is called Bogorodica, which means Mother of God. You will lose in Russia. Already you are on the losing side."