Calling on the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mother of Mercy” and imploring her “at this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort,” Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory joined March 25 with Pope Francis and bishops throughout the world in consecrating Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
“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,” Cardinal Gregory prayed during a March 25, 2022 Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. “Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.”
Cardinal Gregory made the consecration at the National Shrine at the same time as Pope Francis made the same act of consecration at the Vatican, as Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, did so at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, and as bishops and clergy throughout the world did so in their own dioceses and churches.
The text of the consecration was made public before the Mass so that the faithful around the globe could join in the prayer.
“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,” Cardinal Gregory, the pope and churchmen throughout the world intoned.
The consecration was requested last week by Pope Francis, who has prayed for peace and called for an end to the hostilities that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
“This Act of Consecration is meant to be a gesture of the Universal Church, which in this dramatic moment lifts up to God, through his Mother and ours, the cry of pain of all those who suffer and implore an end to the violence, and to entrust the future of our human family to the Queen of Peace,” the pope wrote in a letter to all bishops of the world inviting them to participate.
The act was made on the Solemnity of the Annunciation which commemorates the Archangel Gabriel’s appearing to Mary to inform her that she would be the mother of God’s only Son. His salutation to her, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee” (Luke 1:28), forms the first part of the “Hail Mary” prayer.
“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,” Cardinal Gregory prayed as he made the consecration.
Joining Cardinal Gregory at the Mass were Washington Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville, Msgr. Walter Rossi, rector of the National Shrine and about 40 priests, including clergy from the Ukrainian Catholic rite. Nearly 2,000 people – including members of the Diplomatic Corps representing about 40 nations –attended the Mass during which the consecration was made. People attending the Mass recited the Act of Consecration with Cardinal Gregory.
“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,” the cardinal prayed. “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.”
In his Act of Consecration March 25, Cardinal Gregory prayed that through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “may God's mercy be poured out on the Earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days,” He also prayed that Mary would “restore among us the harmony that comes from God” and “water the dryness of our hearts.”
“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,” Cardinal Gregory said in echoing the worldwide prayer. “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.”
The consecration invoked Mary under several of her titles, each with a specific intention:
“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.”
“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.”
While making the consecration, people in the National Shrine and around the world acknowledged that “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.”
After the consecration, a Ukrainian hymn in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary was sung by the National Shrine’s choir.
During his homily, Cardinal Gregory lamented that “it would be no exaggeration to say that we come together today at one of the darker moments in human history.”
“We can literally see a war being conducted via our smart phones and television screens,” he said. “We can literally see the path that a rocket took resulting in the death of defenseless children and the elderly and leaving people homeless. We shudder at those scenes.”
Cardinal Gregory noted that the Solemnity of the Annunciation was an appropriate time to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He said that Mary agreed to become the Mother of God “only after she said that she was ‘deeply troubled’ and ‘how can this be?’ ”
“I think many of us here today can identify with those very words when it comes to the daily massacre in the Ukraine,” Cardinal Gregory said while warning the faithful that if they give into doubt, “then we are walking too close to despair rather than welcoming and sharing the good news of the Gospel.”
The cardinal praised Pope Francis not just for calling for the Act of Consecration, but also for publicly calling the war a “senseless massacre” and a “repetition of slaughter and atrocities”; for personally visiting the office of the Russian Ambassador to the Holy See in Rome to plead face to face to stop this war; for visiting child victims at the way being treated at a children’s hospital in Rome; and for distributing goods and organizing services for victims and migrants in Ukraine.
“This truly shows the way Pope Francis is offering the world with an example of hope,” Cardinal Gregory said. “…We are part of each other in the faith that is ours. We are in this together, migrant and well settled, the emaciated and the overfull, the poor and the rich.”
The cardinal urged the faithful to welcome those displaced by the war and “take up this responsibility to welcome and care for migrants because, as the Holy Father says in Fratelli tutti, ‘We are brothers and sisters to all.’ ”
“Indeed, we do gather at one of the darker moments in the history of the world,” he said. “Nevertheless, we face all of this tragedy and suffering in the hope that it will soon end and that minds and hearts of all people will continue to be converted, consecrated, and renewed.”
During the Mass, prayers were also offered for peace among nations, for Ukraine, for those who serve in the military and for those who have been forced from their homeland because of war or violence.
The consecration of Russia was specifically requested by Mary when she appeared to three shepherd children at Fatima in 1917. She urged prayer, repentance and the consecration of Russia.
The lone surviving visionary, Sister Lucia, in recounting the July 13, 1917 apparition of Our Lady, wrote in her memoir that the Blessed Virgin told her, “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart… I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart... In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."
The entire world has been consecrated by a pope to the Immaculate Heart of Mary several times: by Pope Pius XII in 1942, by Pope Paul VI in 1964, by Pope (now Saint) John Paul II in 1982 and 1984 and by Pope Francis in 2013.
