Day 10:
Opening Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created and You shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, Grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations.
Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
At the Annunciation
Mary, at the Annunciation, accepted the word of God and heard that: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you...” (Lk 1:35).
The Church shares the same experience at Pentecost. Mary and the disciples receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and from that moment the maternity of the Church begins. The Gospel will be announced to all nations. The motherhood of Mary continues in the maternity of the Church until the end of time through preaching and Baptism.
The mystery that joins Mary to the Church makes our consecration to Mary, ultimately, a consecration to Jesus in the Church. To belong to Mary means to belong to the Church. We cannot ignore this ecclesial dimension of the consecration to Mary.
If Mary was in the Cenacle of Jerusalem with the nascent Church, even today we meet Mary in the Church that proclaims the Gospel and celebrates the liturgy.
As we can deduce, then, to consecrate oneself to Mary is not simply a devotional act.
To consecrate oneself to Mary means to be committed to be an active member within the Church that recreates the Cenacle’s atmosphere: prayer, communion and mission, in continuous docility to the Holy Spirit. It means to be committed to live “with” the Church: “Sentire cum ecclesia,” as the Fathers of the Church put it, by embracing the great ideals of the Church.
Each of us should foster the desire and commitment for the unity of the Church, first of all, for which Jesus prayed before His passion (cf. Jn 17). To stay with Mary in the Cenacle means to wish that all of God’s children are gathered around the Eucharist. Today, those who believe in Christ are not yet fully united. We must feel the responsibility to pray for Christian unity and to participate in the work of the evangelisation that is the extension of Mary’s maternal mission. As missionary disciples, we are aware that the word of the Lord is too far from being accomplished: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mk 16:15); “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Closing Prayer
Hail Mary…
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, and for all those who do not have recourse to you, especially the enemies of Holy Church and all those recommended to you.
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