Prayers of John Paul II

Collect, October 22nd

O God, who are rich in mercy
and who willed that the blessed John Paul II
should preside as Pope over your universal Church,
grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching,
we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ,
the sole Redeemer of mankind.

Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God,
forever and ever.

Amen.

Do Whatever He Tells You

Mother, we listen with particular attention to your words: "Do whatever my Son tells you."

And we wish to respond to your words with all our heart.

We wish to do what your Son tells us,
for He has the words of eternal life.

We wish to carry out and fulfill all that comes from Him,
all that is contained in the Good News,
as our forefathers did for many centuries.

May our ears constantly hear your motherly voice.

Enable us to persevere with Christ.

Enable us, Mother of the Church,
to build up His Mystical Body
by living with the life that He alone can grant us from His fullness,
which is both divine and human.

Act of Entrustment to Mary

O Mother, today we wish to entrust to you the future that awaits us,
and we ask you to be with us on our way.
We are the men and women of an extraordinary time,
exhilarating yet full of contradictions.
Humanity now has instruments of unprecedented power:
we can turn this world into a garden, or reduce it to a pile of rubble.
We have devised the astounding capacity to intervene in the very well-springs of life:
man can use this power for good, within the bounds of the moral law,
or he can succumb to the short-sighted pride of a science which accepts no limits,
but tramples on the respect due to every human being.
Today as never before in the past, humanity stands at a crossroads.
And once again, O Virgin Most Holy,
salvation lies fully and uniquely in Jesus, your Son.

Therefore, O Mother, like the Apostle John,
we wish to take you into our home,
that we may learn from you to become like your Son.
"Woman, behold your son!"
Here we stand before you to entrust to your maternal care
ourselves, the Church, the entire world.
Plead for us with your beloved Son
that he may give us in abundance the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of truth which is the fountain of life.
Receive the Spirit for us and with us,
as happened in the first community gathered round you in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
May the Spirit open our hearts to justice and love,
and guide people and nations to mutual understanding and a firm desire for peace.
We entrust to you all people, beginning with the weakest:
the babies yet unborn, and those born into poverty and suffering,
the young in search of meaning, the unemployed,
and those suffering hunger and disease.
We entrust to you all troubled families,
the elderly with no one to help them, and all who are alone and without hope.

O Mother, you know the sufferings and hopes of the Church and the world:
come to the aid of your children in the daily trials which life brings to each one,
and grant that, thanks to the efforts of all, the darkness will not prevail over the light.
To you, Dawn of Salvation, we commit our journey through the new Millennium,
so that with you as guide all people may know Christ,
the light of the world and its only Savior,
who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit
for ever and ever.

Amen.