The Nicaraguan Bishop’s Conference encouraged the faithful to participate at least spiritually in a special ceremony tomorrow, Sunday, August 15.
Newsroom (August 14, 2021, 7:50 PM, Gaudium Press) Tomorrow, August 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into heaven. On this day, the Church in Nicaragua will renew the consecration of the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For this reason, the Archdiocese of Managua shared a special prayer that all the faithful may participate in the ceremony.
A message was sent to the country’s Catholics by the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference encouraging them to recite the Holy Rosary and renew their consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary because Our Lady “believed firmly in her Son Jesus and was the first to be renewed for the cause of the Kingdom.”
“Let us look to Her and allow ourselves to be impacted by Her maternal gaze. Let us pray the Holy Rosary daily for the end of the pandemic, the conversion, and peace of Nicaragua,” the Bishops say. They also urge that during the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, on August 15, the first consecration of Nicaragua to Our Lady be prayed “in attentive listening to the Word of God and its fulfillment.”
Prayer of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen, and Mother of Mercy, who in your maternal womb gave birth to Jesus, the human face of God’s mercy!
To you, Virgin Most Pure, to your maternal hands and to your immaculate heart, we consecrate our country. To you Most Holy Mother we consecrate our families, our communities, and our institutions. May Nicaragua, your beloved people, be able to find paths of tolerance and communion, of fraternity and peace.
May we, Nicaraguans, be able to build a future worthy of all, where diversity is a wealth and where we can build peace as the fruit of justice. Guard lovingly in your Mother’s heart these people that today invokes you with great confidence.
Queen and Mother of Mercy! Intercede for the Church, the community of your son Jesus, of which you are the purest icon “so that she may never close, nor stop in her passion to establish the Kingdom” (EG, 288), so that the Church may be a house of mercy for all our country, a house of communion, freedom, joy, and hope.
Help us to be witnesses of communion of service, of ardent and generous faith, of justice and love for the poor, so that the Gospel reaches every corner of our country and no periphery is deprived of its light (cf. EG 288). Hear us, Mother of Mercy!
Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Mother, to you we sigh, we groan and weep in this valley of tears! Mother Most Pure, we believe that one day, when your Risen Son makes all things new, there will be no more death, nor crying, nor pain, for God will wipe away the tears from every eye (Rev 21:4).
To you, Most Pure Lady, we consecrate our homeland, Nicaragua, in these moments of uncertainty. Take Nicaragua in your hands and welcome us into your heart. Help us to know how to dialogue among ourselves, to fight for the dignity of all human beings, to never stop hungering and thirsting for justice, to be tolerant men and women who build peace. Mother of mercy, “show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb.” Help us to know Him, so that, like Him, we too can go everywhere doing good. Show us Jesus to always seek, like Him, the good of people, to be sensitive to people’s suffering, to look at the pain of others, to be moved and helped with mercy. Today, more than ever, Blessed Virgin Mary, we need you to show us Jesus, “blessed fruit of your womb”
Blessed Virgin Mary, welcome us into your lap. Pray for us, Holy Mother of God, that we may be worthy to attain the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (EPC)
Compiled by Sarah Gangl
