|
ACT OF ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY MOST HOLY
VATICAN CITY, OCT 8, 2000 (VIS) - Following is the entire text of the Act of Entrustment to
Mary Most Holy read by Pope John Paul at the end of Mass this morning in St. Peter's Square for the
conclusion of the Jubilee of Bishops:
1. "Woman, behold your Son!" (Jn 19:26). As we near the end of this Jubilee Year, when you, O
Mother, have offered us Jesus anew, the blessed fruit of your womb most pure, the Word made flesh,
the world's Redeemer, we hear more clearly the sweet echo of his words entrusting us to you, making
you our Mother: "Woman, behold your Son!" When he entrusted to you the Apostle John, and with him
the children of the Church and all people, Christ did not diminish but affirmed anew the role which is
his alone as the Saviour of the world. You are the splendor which in no way dims the light of Christ,
you exist in him and through him. Everything in you is fiat: you are the Immaculate One, through
you there shines the fullness of grace. Here, then, are your children, gathered before you at the dawn
of the new millennium. The Church today, through the voice of the Successor of Peter, in union with
so many Pastors assembled here from every corner of the world, seeks refuge in your motherly
protection and trustingly begs your intercession as she faces the challenges which lie hidden in the
future.
2. In this year of grace, countless people have known the overflowing joy of the mercy which the
Father has given us in Christ. In the particular Churches throughout the world, and still more in this
centre of Christianity, the widest array of people have accepted this gift. Here the enthusiasm of the
young rang out, here the sick have lifted up their prayer. Here have gathered priests and religious,
artists and journalists, workers and people of learning, children and adults, and all have acknowledged
in your beloved Son the Word of God made flesh in your womb. O Mother, intercede for us, that the
fruits of this Year will not be lost and that the seeds of grace will grow to the full measure of the
holiness to which we are all called.
3. Today we wish to entrust to you the future that awaits us, and we ask you to be with us on our
way. We are the men and women of an extraordinary time, exhilarating yet full of contradictions.
Humanity now has instruments of unprecedented power: we can turn this world into a garden, or
reduce it to a pile of rubble. We have devised the astounding capacity to intervene in the very
well-springs of life: man can use this power for good, within the bounds of the moral law, or he can
succumb to the short-sighted pride of a science which accepts no limits, but tramples on the respect
due to every human being. Today as never before in the past, humanity stands at a crossroads. And
once again, O Virgin Most Holy, salvation lies fully and uniquely in Jesus, your Son.
4. Therefore, O Mother, like the Apostle John, we wish to take you into our home (cf. Jn 19:27), that
we may learn from you to become like your Son. "Woman, behold your son!" Here we stand before
you to entrust to your maternal care ourselves, the Church, the entire world. Plead for us with your
beloved Son that he may give us in abundance the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth which is the fountain
of life. Receive the Spirit for us and with us, as happened in the first community gathered round you in
Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:14). May the Spirit open our hearts to justice and love,
and guide people and nations to mutual understanding and a firm desire for peace. We entrust to you
all people, beginning with the weakest: the babies yet unborn, and those born into poverty and
suffering, the young in search of meaning, the unemployed, and those suffering hunger and disease.
We entrust to you all troubled families, the elderly with no one to help them, and all who are alone and
without hope.
5. O Mother, you know the sufferings and hopes of the Church and the world: come to the aid of your
children in the daily trials which life brings to each one, and grant that, thanks to the efforts of all, the
darkness will not prevail over the light. To you, Dawn of Salvation, we commit our journey through the
new Millennium, so that with you as guide all people may know Christ, the light of the world and its
only Saviour, who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
- Back to news |
|
