2025.03.23 3rd Sunday of Lent

Dear Parishioners,

This Tuesday, March 25, we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, a feast that honours the Blessed Virgin Mary. We are in the middle of our Lenten journey and we continue our journey through this special Jubilee Year, as pilgrims of hope. Mary is our companion and intercessor on our journey. The Second Vatican Council document, Lumen Gentium (53-54) describes the special role of Mary in the Church in the following words: The model par excellence of the Church, her pre-eminent and unique member, her most excellent exemplar, her most exalted type and indeed loving mother is the Blessed ever Virgin Mary.”

As Christ invited the Beloved Disciple to welcomed His Mother as his mother, we each of us are called by Christ to welcome His Mother as our mother and to create space for her in our hearts, in our homes and in our communities. Furthermore, back in March 22, 2023, our Holy Father had requested that we make and renew annually our total consecration to Mary, our Mother.

Given this background, our Archbishop, His Eminence Frank Cardinal Leo, is inviting all the priests and faithful of the diocese to consecrate themselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary on March 25, 2025.  In his letter he writes, “Given that the Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary is deemed a unique and grace-filled opportunity in which our Catholic archdiocesan family can gather together, in different ways, and in prayer and devotion, to entrust all that we are and all that we have, our joys and our sorrows, our dreams and our plans into her Immaculate Heart and through her, to Jesus – our Lord and Saviour, we shall make this beautiful act of Catholic devotion and spirituality on 25 March 2025, Solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord.”

Here at St. Rose of Lima Parish, we will do the act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary at our 7.30 am and 12.00 noon Masses on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. If you are not able to join us for one of our Parish Mass that day, I invite parishioners to consecrate yourselves at home, using the Prayer of Consecration you find in this bulletin. May our Blessed Mother continue to intercede for us.

Fr. Vijai, C.S.C. ~ Pastor

Prayer of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, I/we, consecrate to you myself / the members of my family, together with all the faithful of the Church.

We lift up to you, O Mother of the Word Incarnate, all of our families, and all of those brothers and sisters of Your Son, who need your maternal care and your intercession. Through your powerful and loving prayers, bring the consolation of Christ our Lord to all the pastors and the entire flock of your Beloved Son, Jesus: to the young and to the elderly, the sick and the abandoned, the lonely and the dejected, those who are to be born and those who are dying, those trying to find their way and those who have strayed away. With a mother’s heart, welcome our petitions and show forth your great compassion and love to those who have become your children entrusted to your motherly care by the Crucified Redeemer. By your merciful gaze, look upon all those who are persecuted for their faith, the victims of war and abuse, those who are afflicted by addictions, those who despair and have lost all hope. You who are the gift whom our loving Lord gave to us on Calvary, graciously receive our prayer and deny us not the graces we humbly implore from you.

Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in the valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy upon us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ. Mary, Mother of the Church… Pray for us.