Invitation to join Archbishop Pérez/Consecration of Ukraine (March 25)

In response to Pope Francis’ call for bishops throughout the world to participate in a solemn act In response to Pope Francis calling Bishops, Priests and Lay Faithful to join him in consecrating Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Friday, March 25, 2022.  You are invited to join the Live stream Mass at the Cathedral-Basilica of Ss, Peter and Paul, Philadelphia, with Archbishop Perez as Principal Celebrant and Archbishop Borys Gudziak, as the homilist.  The Act of Consecration (see attached link) will take place during the Mass.

The Mass will be streamed live on the Archdiocesan Vimeo website https://vimeo.com/event/17522, as well as on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Archbishop Pérez Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/ArchPhila and https://www.facebook.com/ArchbishopPerez.

Act of Consecration
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Basilica of Saint Peter
25 March 2022

O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you. As our Mother,
you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy,
how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never
cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from
the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We
have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed
peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought
only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish
needs and concerns. We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow
arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped
being our neighbor’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the
garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and
everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!

Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid
the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but
continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He
has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all
humanity. By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments
of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.

We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We are your beloved children. In
every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help
us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?”
You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times. In you we place our trust. We
are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and
will come to our aid.

That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the
first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no
wine” (Jn 2:3). Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we
have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our
humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and
destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!

Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.
Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation. Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.

Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.
Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.
Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.
Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.

O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us
make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may
your prayer turn our thoughts to peace. May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer
and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave
their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and
inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and
cast aside.

Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your
side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26). In this way he entrusted each of us to you. To the
disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27). Mother Mary, we now
desire to welcome you into our lives and our history. At this hour, a weary and distraught
humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through
you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with
great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all
those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.

Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust
and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.
Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and
peace spread throughout the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors
of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once
more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and
expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle
rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit
descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our “living
fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us
to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on
the paths of peace. Amen.