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St. Pio of Pietrelcina (affectionately known as “Padre Pio”) had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother. He said once, “Let us endeavor, like so many elect souls, to follow this blessed Mother, to walk always close to her, not following any other path that leads to life, except the one trod by our Mother.”
Besides frequently praying the Rosary, Padre Pio also had a custom of consecrating himself to the Virgin Mary on the first Saturday of every month. This was likely in response to the visions at Fatima, where the Virgin Mary urged prayer and consecration to her Immaculate Heart.
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Here is the prayer that he prayed each month, placing himself under her care and pledging his love and service to God.
O Mary, Virgin most powerful and Mother of mercy, Queen of heaven and Refuge of sinners, we consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart. We consecrate to you our very being and our whole life; all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. To you we give our bodies, our hearts and our souls; to you we give our homes, our families, our country. We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to you, and may share in the benefits of your motherly benediction.And that this act of consecration may be truly efficacious and lasting, we renew this day at your feet the promises of our Baptism and our first Holy Communion. We pledge ourselves to profess courageously and at all times the truths, of our Holy Faith,and to live as Catholics who are duly submissive to all the directions of the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him. We pledge ourselves to keep the commandments of God and His Church, in particular to keep holy the Lord’s day. We likewise pledge ourselves to make the consoling practices of the Christian religion, and above all, Holy Communion, an integral part of our lives, in so far as we shall be able to do so.Finally, we promise you, O glorious Mother of God and loving Mother of all, to devote ourselves whole-heartedly to your service, in order to hasten and assure, through the sovereignty of your Immaculate Heart, the coming of the kingdom of the Sacred Heart of your adorable Son, in our own hearts and in the hearts of all, in our country and in all the world, as in heaven, so on earth. Amen.
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And today we celebrate...