Day 10 or 11 of the 33 Day Consecration to Mary - The Messiah is Coming to You

Today is day ten or eleven of the 33 Day Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, depending on whether you were ending on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Happy Liturgical New Year! Today is the first Sunday of Advent, as we prepare for the birth of Jesus in our hearts and in the world. I was reading the today’s first reading on God’s promises to Israel and felt I should read Israel as myself. The Lord promises to send One to me, One who will do in my life what is right and just. Hearing my name instead of Judah and Jerusalem, I will someday be made safe and secure. There are places of my heart, mind, memory, intellect, relationships, vocation and body that need healing. This Advent, I am remembering God’s promise in hope that I will be made whole. I used to hear of the promise and think the healing was only coming in Heaven. I thought life on earth was a drudgery, as it says in Job chapter 7. But the Lord has encountered me in so many places in recent years, turning injustice and pain into reconciliation and peace. I pray that this consecration brings Jesus into your broken places too. The Messiah is coming! He promises restoration. Today or someday we don’t know, we will have justice, wholeness, Joy, peace and love in ourselves, our families, our nation and our Church. A Solemn Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Most Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world. Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of the World, rule over us, together with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Our King. Save us from the spreading flood of modern paganism; kindle in our hearts and homes the love of purity, the practice of a virtuous life, an ardent zeal for souls, and a desire to pray the Rosary more faithfully. We come with confidence to You, O Throne of Grace and Mother of Fair Love. Inflame us with the same Divine Fire which has inflamed Your own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Make our hearts and homes Your shrine, and through us, make the Heart of Jesus, together with your rule, triumph in every heart and home. Amen. --Venerable Pope Pius XI