33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Marian Consecration by Michael E. Gaitley

Author:Michael E. Gaitley [Gaitley, Michael E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Catholicism
ISBN: 9781596142442
Amazon: 1596142448
Publisher: Marian Press
Published: 2011-12-08T07:00:00+00:00

DAY 28

Marian Entrustment (Part Two)

Let’s return to Fatima, where we started this week — but this time let’s go with Blessed John Paul II.

Exactly one year after being shot in St. Peter’s Square, John Paul went to Fatima “in order to give thanks that the mercy of God and the protection of the Mother of Christ” had saved his life.101 On that occasion, he delivered a heartfelt homily that’s a rich source of the theology of Marian consecration and entrustment. The entire homily and Act of Entrustment are too long to cite here. So, I’m going to summarize. Specifically, I’m going to draw out from them the connection the Pope makes between consecration to Mary, Divine Mercy, and the redeeming consecration of Christ. Let’s start with the connection between Mary and Divine Mercy.

Before we begin, a few things about Divine Mercy: (1) According to John Paul, Divine Mercy is the limit imposed by God on evil, the love of God in the face of evil; (2) Divine Mercy is symbolized by the pierced side of Christ and the blood and water that gushed forth from his side; (3) a central part of the modern Divine Mercy devotion is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which offers atonement and implores mercy for our sins and those of the whole world. In what follows, notice how these three aspects of Divine Mercy are central to the Pope’s most important homily on Marian consecration.

The homily’s context is the widespread, “almost apocalyptic” evil of our time, an evil that “menaces,” that is “spreading,” and that gathers “like a dark cloud over mankind.” The Pope confesses that this evil causes “trepidation” in his heart. Despite this, he finds hope in “a Love more powerful than evil” which no “sin of the world can ever overcome.” This Love he identifies as “merciful Love.”102

And what about this merciful Love? What does it have to do with Marian consecration? Everything. It has everything to do with consecration because Mary is the one who brings us to the source of merciful Love. Mary is the one who brings us to the love that is more powerful than evil. Indeed, as John Paul says in his homily, consecration to the Immaculate Heart means “drawing near, through the Mother’s intercession, to the very Fountain of Life that sprang from Golgotha.”103 What is this fountain of life? The Pope identifies it as “the Fountain of Mercy.”104 It’s the pierced side of Christ from which blood and water flowed as a source of grace and mercy. And it’s through this wound in Christ’s Heart that “reparation is made continually for the sins of the world.” Moreover, through this Fountain of Mercy, we find “a ceaseless source of new life and holiness.”105

The Pope goes on to explain that consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means “returning to the Cross of the Son.” It means bringing the world and all its problems and sufferings to “the pierced Heart of the Savior” and thus “back to the very source of its Redemption.

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