Act of Consecration to the Virgin, Our Lady of Lake Togo

On Friday, 9 August 1985, the Holy Father made an Act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lake Togo in Togoville. On that occasion, he delivered the following Address.

Dear brothers and sisters, pilgrims of Notre-Dame of Lake Togo.

1. Your joy is overflowing! Mine is as great as yours! It is true that a meeting between friends, and this is one of them, makes friendship grow. It is equally certain that a gathering of pilgrims - and this is a wonderful gathering - reawakens the Christian faith. And clearly the presence of the Successor of Peter among you brings enthusiasm to its peak, a bit as if you were finding yourselves on the shores of the Sea of ​​Galilee. May the Lord always be praised for the grace granted to all of us!

 Our meeting takes place in a wonderful setting: on the shores of Lake Togo. It takes place next to the sanctuary begun in 1910 by the missionaries of the Divine Word. It takes place very close to the image representing Our Lady of Lake Togo, invoked with the name of Mother of Mercy. Pilgrims of all ages, I sense your desire to express your joy in the African and Togolese way. Then you can clap your hands for Our Lady! For the most holy Mother of God!

The God we adore is Spirit. Out of love for humanity, he made himself visible in the person of his only Son, who has always been one with him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. This Son, who became man, experienced human existence on a small piece of the immense universe, which from this historical event has been called the Holy Land. Yes, the Son of God wanted to be born of a woman chosen from the beginning of time. To be born of a woman free from sin! And this Mother, blessed among all, God gave us a few moments before dying on the cross, on which he offered his life for us. A mysterious and at the same time so luminous gesture! The Son of God gave us his Mother. Why? To help Christians, his disciples of all continents and of all times, to understand the mystery of Jesus, the only savior of the world, the only intermediary between God and men. To help them with maternal solicitude to follow Jesus. As at Cana, she seems to tell us: “Do whatever he tells you” ( Jn 2:5). She helps us to meditate on the unique testimony given to the world by her Son: filial availability to God, his Father and our Father, and at the same time openness to other men and peoples, fraternal openness, generous, without limits of frontiers or race. Let us never cease to adore this Savior, overflowing with merciful love for each and every one! Let us equally and unceasingly venerate the Mother of this divine mercy, incarnate in the person of Jesus. Like her Son, she too is mercy. How right you were, on the occasion of the celebrations of 1973, to complete the title “Notre-Dame of Lake Togo” by adding “Mother of Mercy”.

You have drawn inspiration from the Gospel itself and from the entire history of Marian devotion for two thousand years now. We cannot leave this blessed place without taking refuge in spirit in the arms of this Mother, making our own the consecration that I will pronounce in the name of all.

2. But first I would like to address in particular the young people as well as the sick and disabled present here. Dear adolescents and young people, who are fortunate to be healthy: thank the Lord. Respect this treasure. Learn to master your body in sports, with good hygiene. Bring to Togolese society and especially to your family the healthy physical strength of a balanced personality. Your dignity as men comes from your resemblance to God himself. You know that your capacities for reflection, for decision, for self-giving are of a spiritual nature, and reflect a certain presence of God in you. Your Baptism is an event that marks your whole life. Confirmed in the Spirit, united to the body of Christ, you are sustained in your dignity as men by the presence of God in you. Such dignity is manifested and will be manifested every day through your loyalty, your courage, your availability, your capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation, your fidelity to your religious beliefs and to prayer. The religious knowledge you have received must be developed, deepened, far beyond the catechism of childhood, especially if you are following studies. It must be at the level of your culture, it must allow you to answer old and new questions, to bear witness to the hope that is in you. Above all, it must lead you to have total trust in Christ, to maintain a dialogue with him through prayer, to take an active place in the Church, to try to build a new world together with him.

Among all creatures, Mary, with her faithfulness, with her total dedication to the Lord and to his work of salvation, is an admirable example for all of us. Yes, Mary received much from the Lord. She also made the most of the talents she received. This is why she gave much to all humanity, and continues to accompany individuals and peoples.

Young people, the Church in this country needs you. Togolese society needs you. Africa needs you. Be ready, like Mary of Nazareth, to give the best of yourselves to serve God and your brothers.

3. And you, dear young people or adults who are marked by an infirmity, an illness, by moral suffering, turn more and more to the Mother of Mercy. I am thinking in particular of the blind who are listening to me. The Virgin Mary will lead you very close to her Son. Of course, it is important that, within each country, and between better equipped countries and less advanced countries, we help one another to make poverty retreat in every aspect. We need more doctors, more hospitals, more dispensaries. Unfortunately, there exist everywhere, even in very well equipped countries, infirmities and diseases that are difficult to cure, at least completely. And then there is moral suffering, sometimes more burdensome than physical suffering.

Brothers and sisters, young and old, devotion to Jesus Christ, piety towards his Mother have helped generations of believers to increasingly accept their cross. Pilgrims to sanctuaries such as Lourdes have been struck by the peace and even the intimate smiles of the sick in wheelchairs or stretchers. Evil remains a tormenting problem, which makes each sick person or those around them say: why, why me? And yet the Lord Jesus - and He alone - has somehow given meaning to this trial, a light. He took suffering upon himself. He carried his own cross. We have meditated on these mysteries. Yet in him there is no trace of rebellion, nor of fatalism: he offered this suffering out of love. And that is how he achieved victory over evil. Suffering, looked in the face, accepted little by little, offered in union with Christ, can be a path of light, a spiritual ascension. There are many cases of Christians, deprived of the partial or total use of their physical strength, of their senses - sight or hearing - who enlighten and sometimes even convert their fellow men, not by what they do, but by what they are. In a certain sense, they are the evangelical signs of today. Yes, the Virgin Mary, in all the sanctuaries consecrated to her throughout the world, helps pilgrims who suffer to become a fruitful gift, a saving light for humanity. Sick and sick people who have come on this pilgrimage, believe in the value of your existence lived with Christ and alongside his Mother! The Church counts on your prayers. And I too count on you for the ministry that the Lord has entrusted to me at the service of the whole Church.

A moment of silence would be useful to all of us, before uniting our spirits and our hearts in the prayer of consecration that I will pronounce on behalf of all.

ACT OF CONSECRATION

O Mary, Mother of the Son of God,
the only Redeemer
who came to save the peoples
of all continents and all times,
we praise you.

You are the holiest and most human
of all the Lord’s creatures.
You are the greatest,
“blessed among women” on earth.
You are at the same time the humblest,
the most approachable!
You are forever the Mother of God.
You wanted to accept being
also the most merciful Mother
of all human generations,
who never cease to say to you: Blessed”.

For twenty centuries,
while you reside near your Son,
in the glory of heaven,
it is as if you were visiting the earth!
You lend your ear
to the disciples of your son Jesus,
you bend over sinners!
You welcome all men
of good will,
as Jesus himself did
in the villages and cities
of Judea and Galilee!
In the time of the Church
inaugurated by Pentecost,
at which you were present,
you do not cease to present
to individuals and nations
this Child,
the wonderful fruit of the Holy Spirit
in your virginal flesh,
this Child
who came, at the chosen time,
light for the world, Son of God
who places his life
in the hands of the Father
to save many.
Risen on Easter morning
as the conqueror of death.
O Mary, you desire only one thing
so that our joy may be perfect,
even in the trials of life.
You desire only one thing:
that we fully accept Jesus.

O Mother of Mercy,
on this day, in this place,
we feel the need to receive you
- even more - as our mother.
To carry you with us day by day,
over the years, more deeply in our hearts!
So that you may keep us close,
ever closer to Jesus the Savior,
ever more faithful
to the service of all his brothers,
who are also your children,
especially to the service of the littlest,
of those who know the greatest anguish.
Our spirit, our will,
our heart,
the treasure of our faith,
our limits, our failures,
our joys, our new beginnings,
our various responsibilities,
our human relationships,
our efforts
to understand the times in which we live,
our whole life
until our last breath . . .
everything is entrusted to your maternal gaze,
to your goodness,
to your prayer of intercession!
All that we are,
all that we have
is placed in your hands,
for the cause of Jesus
and for the building of his kingdom
of truth, holiness, justice,
brotherhood, peace.

On this day and in this place
we entrust to you this dear homeland of Togo,
our families, our Christian communities,
the pastors called to lead them.
We entrust to you all of Africa and its future.
We entrust to you the whole world,
this world that you love and that you want to save,
next to your son Jesus.

O Mother,
let us feel her maternal presence
so discreet and effective.
Make us ardent disciples of Jesus
and generous workers of his Gospel,
in the Church he founded!

Amen!

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