May 14, 2013, Tuesday -- The Consecration
Francis' pontificate consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima
As requested by Pope Francis in at least two personal telephone calls,
the cardinal archbishop of Lisbon, Patriarch Jose da Cruz Policarpo,
yesterday consecrated the papacy of Pope Francis, in a ceremony in
Fatima, Portugal, to Our Lady of Fatima.
This
shows the profoundly Marian devotion of this present Holy Father, and
suggests that other consecrations to the Virgin may come in the weeks
and months ahead.
The Rorate Caeli website, among others, posted the following news report from the Catholic News Service:
FATIMA, Portugal (CNS) — Entrusting Pope Francis’ pontificate to Our
Lady of Fatima, Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo of Lisbon, Portugal,
asked Mary to give the pope courage and strength, particularly as he
moves to renew and reform the Catholic Church.
“Give him the gift of discernment to know how to identify the ways of
renewal of the church; give him the courage not to hesitate to follow
the ways suggested by the Holy Spirit; support him in the hard hours of
suffering to overcome with the charity the trials that the renewal of
the church will bring,” the cardinal prayed May 13, the feast of Our
Lady of Fatima.
“We consecrate to you, Our Lady, mother of the church, the ministry of
the new pope,” he prayed. “Fill his heart with the tenderness of God
that you experienced so that he can embrace all the men and women of our
age with the love of your son Jesus Christ.”
Cardinal Policarpo recited the prayer, which he wrote himself, at the
end of a Mass concluding a major international pilgrimage to Fatima for
the feast day marking the 96th anniversary of the apparition of Mary to
three children.
The Portuguese cardinal, who participated in the conclave that elected
Pope Francis, said the new Pope had asked him twice to consecrate his
pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima. He also asked Mary to give Pope
Francis “the desire to be a pilgrim to this shrine.”
But Pope Francis was not the only object of a special consecration
during the mid-May pilgrimage; at a Mass May 12 at the Fatima shrine,
Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta of Rio de Janeiro entrusted to Mary all
the young people who are preparing to attend World Youth Day in Rio with
Pope Francis in July.
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What is the meaning of such a consecration?
From a Catholic website comes this definition of consecration.
Consecration
(nowadays also called dedication or entrustment) is a well-known term
in the history of spirituality. It has biblical roots, and became the
quest of many saints and spirituals through the centuries. Martyrs,
virgins, monks are so-called consecrated persons...
But what is the meaning of consecration (dedication or entrustment)?
1. God consecrates
In a strict and primary sense, there is room only for one type of
consecration, the one made by God himself. Only God can appropriate a
human being and make him/her sacred. God communicates his holiness to
us; he gives us participation in his holiness. He is our creator and
wants us to be in his image. This transformation into his likeness is
the foremost meaning of consecration.
2. Consecration is a response
Our consecration is therefore essentially a response to his call. In
acquiescing, we bind ourselves to a consecration that comes from God.
We consecrate ourselves to belong to the Lord in a new way. In fact
this new way is the only way by which we truly become who we are. The
foremost example of God-human consecration is Jesus Christ himself. He
is the "Anointed," meaning he totally belongs to God. When, by a free
act of his person (intelligence, will, affection), he accepts the
mission for the salvation of the world (Jn 17, 19; 30) he consecrates
himself. This is what we call his subjective consecration in response
to the objective consecration of his being which occurred in his
humanity at the moment of the Incarnation.
3. Consecration in Christ through baptism
Christ imparts to his disciples and followers a very special belonging
to God. He gives us his own life by making us participants in his own
consecration. This happens in baptism. Baptism is our first and most
important consecration. Baptism is our objective consecration. With
Christ and through him we are destined and commissioned to the glory of
God and the salvation of the world. There is a radical meaning to this
mission: through baptism we do not belong to ourselves anymore but to
Christ who imparts his life to us.
4. A consequence of baptism
What we commonly regard as consecration--our subjective consecration
through promises, renewal of baptismal promises, confirmation, and
vows--is consecration by voluntary adherence to what baptism has made of
us. We promise to live as sons and daughters of God, and thus fulfill
subjectively our objective consecration. All consecrations which follow
baptism are rooted in this primary act of our Christian vocation.
5. Consecration to Mary
Can we consecrate ourselves to Mary? Mary is not the Creator, she is
not the Redeemer. She is the opposite of a Goddess; she never
substituted herself for God. But it was God's will that Mary had
something to do with our Christian life, with our sanctification. It is
a role assigned to her by God. In perfect union with her Son and
subordinate to him, the Vatican II Council calls her "our mother in the
order of grace" (LG 61). Let us not forget that Mary is the prototype
of perfect consecration at the beginning of the New Testament. She was
chosen to help us in our consecration through her intercession and by
her maternal care, which disposes us to receive the gift of God we
receive in baptism. She is the perfect example of the Church, and the
model of all faithful. In her extreme spiritual sensitivity to the Holy
Spirit's inspiration she is God's creaturely masterpiece.
All consecrations to Mary have this Spirit-oriented (meaning
Christocentric and theocentric) meaning. Consecration to Mary is
consecration to the "perfect means" (Montfort) which Jesus chose to
unite himself with us and vice versa. Consecration to Mary heightens the
depth and truth of our commitment to Christ. Consecration to Mary must
explicitly state that our ultimate goal and end is God (Holy Spirit;
Christ our Lord). Consecrations to Mary where one pledges to perform
all actions "through Mary, in Mary, and for Mary" are in fact a pledge
to perform them more perfectly through Jesus Christ, with him, in, and
for him. Dedication to the Heart of Mary must therefore maintain the
vital unity between the Heart of Mary and the Heart of Jesus. We must
confide ourselves to the Heart of Mary in view of our consecration to
God. We offer ourselves to this divine consecration through Mary, for
she points the way to the heart of Jesus.
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"I pray for you, but I ask you to pray for me, because I am in need of your prayers. Three 'Hail Marys' for me..." —Pope Francis, Saturday, May 4
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"Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out." --St. John of the Cross
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