‘Virgin Mary, mother of God, I entrust to you the whole Church in America…’

Seeking solace this afternoon, I found these stirring words of faith and hope from 31 summers ago, delivered the St. John Paul II at Dodger Stadium during his pastoral visit to the United States: 

I wish at this time to turn my thoughts once more to the Woman of faith and of all salvation history: Mary, the Mother of Jesus and Mother of his Church; Mary, the Patroness of the United States under the title of her Immaculate Conception.

I entrust to you, Virgin Mother of God, all the faithful of this land. I entrust them to you, not only as individual men and women in the nobility of their personhood, but as the Christian community, living corporately the life of your divine Son.

I entrust to you my brother bishops in their great mission as servant pastors of God’s people, in communion with the Successor of Peter. I entrust to you all the priests, who minister generously in the name of the Good Shepherd; all the deacons bearing witness to Christ’s servanthood; all women and men religious proclaiming by their lives the holiness of God; all the laity working in virtue of their Baptism and Confirmation to order all temporal affairs according to the plan of God.

I entrust to you all the holy People of God – the pilgrim People of God – called to be mindful of their Christian dignity, called to conversion, called to eternal life.

In particular I entrust to you the families of America, in their quest for holiness, in their struggle against sin, in their vocation to be vital cells in the Body of Christ. I ask you to bless all husbands and wives, all fathers and mothers, and to confirm them in their high vocation of human love and openness to life. I entrust to you the children of this generation, asking you to preserve them in innocence, to protect them from all harm and abuse, and to let them grow up in a world of peace and justice and fraternal love…

…2. I entrust to you all those engaged in the great Christian struggle of life: all those who, despite human weaknesses and repeated falls, are striving to live according to the word of God; all those who are confused about the truth and are tempted to call evil good and darkness light; all those who are yearning for truth and grasping for hope.

I ask you to show yourself once again as a Mother with that deep human concern which was yours at Cana of Galilee. Help all those weighed down by the problems of life. Console the suffering. Comfort the sad and dejected, those tormented in spirit, those without families, loved ones or friends.

Assist the poor and those who need, and those subjected to discrimination or other forms of injustice. Come to the help of the unemployed. Heal the sick. Aid the handicapped and disabled, so that they may live in a manner befitting their dignity as children of God. Stir up the consciences of us all, to respond to the needs of others, with justice, mercy and love.

Virgin Mother of God, Our Lady of the Angels: I entrust to you the whole Church in America. 

There is much more. Read it all.

Mary, the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States, pray for us.