I know there’s a lot going on in the world but for me, this takes center stage. I’m still hoping and praying that this comes off well and then I’m bracing for a miracle. No matter what, it’s good news, right? All of us praying across the world has to be a good thing.
March 24, 2022 at 2:52 pm
The best that T.G. has done to date.
Congrats!
Thank you, Bishop, for being the voice of reason and hope.
March 24, 2022 at 3:33 pm
Meh. If you want a consecration, and the one Sr. Lucia said was good enough isn’t good enough for you, well, you’ll get something. It’s a good prayer, but without the tears and persistence of St. Monica I doubt it will be as effective as St. Monica’s prayers were.
This is an attempt for a quick, easy, and dare I say it? Magical result. Maybe St. Paul and the Twelve would have gotten quicker, easier results if they had consecrated Rome to the Blessed Virgin instead of, you know, actually PREACHING the Gospel and enduring until martyrdom. Maybe, but I doubt it. It’s not that they didn’t pray, it’s that they had to pray AND WORK AND SUFFER. If you want Russia to be converted, it will require evangelists.
And these evangelists had better show that they are altogether serious about the truth of the Catholic Faith. Kissing the Koran is not going to make the Russian Orthodox think that the Church of Rome was right all along. Honoring Pachamama is going to make them think that Jack Chick might have been right about Rome.
I question whether Francis’ eyes are clear enough to remove the mote in Kirill’s eye.
March 24, 2022 at 3:40 pm
Incidentally, much more thought should be given to what exactly was meant by “the errors of Russia” and whether or not they have already spread. I seriously doubt that Russian Orthodox was what was intended, besides which that has not significantly spread since 1917. I also doubt the Blessed Virgin had in mind economic errors. Spiritual errors are far more likely, errors like the denial of spiritual goods and reality, errors like the insignificance of individual humans compared with the good of the state. Russia was prominent for those errors for much of the 20th century, but they did not actually originate in Russia, nor have they ever been confined to Russia. They have been actively spread by US foreign policy for a very long time — certainly going back to the fall of the Soviet Union.
As for nations being annihilated, it seems too simplistic to assume that this means nuclear war — the destruction of all the people, or the Material Cause of the nation. A nation could be said to be destroyed if its Final Cause is destroyed — if it is no longer able to achieve the reason for which it exists. “But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men.” It’s hard not to think of Ireland in this context. It is also hard not to think of the USA. America has never been perfect, but at one point it did not feel like something from the bearded-Spock universe.
March 25, 2022 at 1:45 pm
Sr. Lucia never specifically said that John Paul II’s 1984 consecration fulfilled Our Lady’s request, but she is quoted as affirming that it was accepted in heaven. I’m sure it was accepted, as heaven accepts every sincere and devout act of consecration — even though Russia was not specifically and explicitly consecrated in 1984, contrary to Our Lady’s request.
I think you’re right about what Our Lady meant by the errors of Russia in 1917. Russia had long played a leading role in spreading these errors, but they now permeate the formerly Christian West, which actively spreads them.
March 25, 2022 at 7:41 pm
@Jared Olar — Maybe Our Lady said that, but Our Lord certainly said, “And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?”
God is not some malevolent genie looking for a way to twist our words.
No, the main problem is that too often we ask someone other than the Father, or, perhaps more often, we are asking for the serpent or the scorpion. Unlike the evil genie, God will not give us gifts that are actually harmful, though His gifts are often contrary to our wishes. For example, we probably do not wish to be ill, but God knows if the illness is a call to repentance that might bring eternal blessings in return for some earthly suffering. Inherent in every true Christian prayer is, “Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.”
So we know that God will give us what is good if we ask Him for it, and we know He will not give us evil. Within that context if we are sincere in praying for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on ourselves — a much more fearsome request than we usually recognize — we can be confident that in His own way, He will do that, and if sincerely and humbly ask for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on the world, we can be confident that, SUBJECT TO HIS ALREADY REVEALED WILL (including the freedom of each person’s will and the necessity that we act as His intermediaries), He will do that, too.
But if we approach this as giving God some sort of ultimatum, that a cease fire must take place within 2 weeks and Russia must withdraw form all of Ukraine by the end of the year, we are not praying, we are blaspheming.
March 27, 2022 at 2:58 pm
This overlong, politically-correct prayer of consecration
as a bit of a mess!