571. August 15, Assumption of Our Lady (II)

Meditations no. 502 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Renewal of the consecration to the Most Sweet Heart of Mary, which our Father first made at Loreto on August 15, 1951.

Assumpta est Maria in caelum: gaudent Angeli; Mary has been taken to heaven and the angels rejoice. Today the entire Church joins them in singing the praises of our Lady, who is now in heaven, body and soul. We, who are children of such an exalted mother, prepare ourselves to celebrate this joyous feast with special fervour by renewing the consecration of the Work to the Most Sweet Heart of Mary.

Our Father made this consecration for the first time in 1951. It was at a time when the Work was suffering the onslaught of a harsh and hidden attack. I was denied any dialogue, our Father wrote in one of his letters. I was not even granted the opportunity to explain and clarify matters. I suffered bitterly. They spread falsehoods. … It was in the midst of these sufferings that the Work obtained all the solemn approvals of the apostolic magisterium. Even then, the slander did not stop.

Not knowing to whom I could turn here on earth, as always I turned to heaven. On August 15, 1951, after a penitential trip (why not admit it?), there at Loreto I consecrated the Work to the Sweet Heart of Mary.

Our Father often mentioned that trip to the holy house of Nazareth, expressing deep gratitude to our Lady. Those were difficult times. Weighed down by the violent attacks that had arisen along the Work’s path, our Father placed all his confidence in our Lady. He returned from the trip with peace in his heart, certain that he had left his concerns in good hands. When I returned to Rome, he wrote, I received a letter from my sons in Milan. In it they told me with great emotion that the venerable Cardinal Schuster had asked them to inform me that I should be on guard, because a great tribulation was about to break out against the Work and against me.

During those trying moments the Blessed Virgin gave our Father the strength he needed to defend the Work. He and all of his children constantly repeated the words, Cor Mariae Dulcissimum, iter para tutum! The Work came through this trial more united than ever, thanks to the very special protection of our heavenly Mother. We go to her now in thanksgiving, making use of words from today’s liturgy: The Lord has blessed you by his power, for by you he has brought our enemies to naught. Blessed are you, O daughter, by the Lord the most high God, above all women upon the earth.

We consecrate ourselves and the entire Work to the heart of Mary.

O Most Holy Mary, who conceived Jesus Christ in your virginal womb and thereby became for us mother of grace and of life, of mercy and of pardon; graciously accept the consecration of Opus Dei, which we now make to your Immaculate Heart.

By consecrating the entire Work to the Immaculate and Sweet Heart of Mary, we want to express our filial gratitude to our heavenly Mother. We have many reasons for thanking our Lady. First of all, we have to thank her for the loving and untiring watch that she keeps over the Work, which she has protected from the beginning and accompanied along its path. Opus Dei was born and has grown under our Lady’s mantle, our Father liked to say. The Blessed Virgin has always been at our side, both in times of joy and in times of sorrow. She has always pressed us close to her Heart. She has led us by the hand as a mother leads her child when it begins to take its first steps. In times of danger, the Queen of Opus Dei has stood alongside us to fill us with serenity, to strengthen and encourage us. With words from the Book of Judith we tell her: You are the exultation of Jerusalem, you are the great glory of Israel, you are the great pride of our nation.

In our own lives we too have experienced our Lady’s maternal solicitude. She prepared our soul to receive the divine call to the Work. And when our Lord chose to sow its seed in our heart, Mary watched over us lovingly and protected the newborn spark that was destined to grow into a blaze. Who has not experienced her powerful intercession in their efforts to win new apostles? Who has not experienced our Lady’s gentle touch in the battles of the interior life, a touch that calms the passions and soothes our wounds? You are the blessed of the Lord; through you we have received the fruit of Life.

Words can scarcely express our feelings. Our hearts turn to our Lady with a single desire: We consecrate to you our being and our life, everything that is ours, all that we love and all that we are. Our bodies, our hearts, and our souls are for you; we and our apostolates are yours. We surrender everything to Mary; nothing is left for ourselves. We give her our bodies with their faculties and senses, with the illness and weakness that God permits. We surrender to her our heart, which God has filled with a holy and unending love; we place all its affection, and all its shortcomings, under her protection. Our soul is hers, with all the light that God has placed in our intellect, with the aims that inspire and move our will. We want everything in us and around us to belong to you and to share in your motherly blessings. We also offer her our work, our ideals, our families, our friends: the entire world with all of its inhabitants. And to make this consecration truly effective and lasting, we renew today, at your feet, O Mary, the dedication which we made to God in Opus Dei.

Now we turn to Jesus, and ask for his grace to make our offering to the Sweet Heart of his Mother a reality in our daily lives. Holy Mary, our hope, Seat of Wisdom, handmaid of the Lord, Mother of Fair Love, through your powerful intercession make this consecration pleasing to Jesus.

The requests we make of our Lady today.

Hail, Star of the Sea, admirable Mother of God, ever-virgin, blessed gate of heaven. We call upon our Lady with the aspiration Iter para tutum, iter serva tutum!, which unites us in a special way to our Father and to the Father. For it is a continuous corporate prayer of our whole spiritual family. Do you want to say to our Lady the aspiration that in times of great concern I had to teach my children to say repeatedly many times each day? Cor Mariae dulcissimum, iter para tutum.

To travel integrally the “sure path” that our Lady has prepared for each of us, we go to her with childlike confidence. O heart of Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, most sweet heart, perfect image of the heart of Jesus; hear the pleas that we address to you with filial piety.

Set our poor hearts on fire, so that we will love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit with our whole being; so that, by God’s grace, we will deepen in our loving contemplation of the intimate life of the Most Holy Trinity. Mother, obtain for us the strength we need to follow with docility the inspirations of the Paraclete, the sanctifier of our souls.

Inspire us with a great Love for the Church and for the Pope, and make us live in full obedience to all their teachings. Give us a great love for the Work, for the Father, and for our directors. Make us faithful to our vocation so that we may have a burning zeal for souls. For Jesus has shed his Blood, drop by drop, and died for each of them. Raise us, O Mary, to a state of perfect Love for God, and give us the gift of final perseverance.

And since your prayer is all-powerful in the presence of God, allow us to choose you as special protectress; so that, after having lived a holy life on earth, we may have the joy of praising the Most Blessed Trinity with you forever in heaven. Amen.