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San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone blesses a statue of Our Lady of Fatima during the consecration rite in St. Mary's Cathedral. In his homily he called for praying the rosary and for penance and eucharistic adoration. (CNS photo/Debra Greenblat, Catholic San Francisco)
Aug. 1, 2019
Catholic San Francisco
The Archdiocese of San Francisco is offering the faithful updated resources to live the consecration of the archdiocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in daily life.
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, in response to a request from some of the faithful of the archdiocese, consecrated the archdiocese on Oct. 7, 2017. The day marked the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the year was the centennial of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, Portugal, in which the Blessed Mother asked for devotion to her Immaculate Heart.
“The purpose of the consecration was to rededicate ourselves to responding to God's call to holiness in our lives by living our vocations faithfully and well, and opening our minds and hearts to God's grace through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, Mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” the archbishop says in an introduction to updated resources on the archdiocesan website at https://sfarch.org/living-the-consecration.
“For this act of devotion to bear fruit we must continue to live out its meaning in our lives, and, in particular, must observe the practices that Our Lady requested at Fatima,” he continues.
The archbishop encourages all the faithful to observe the following practices to live the consecration in daily life: pray the rosary daily (for families, at least once a week together); receive the sacrament of penance at least month; observe Fridays, the day of our Lord's death, as a day of penance by abstaining from eating meat, and by doing some other form of fasting or work of charity; pray before the Blessed Sacrament, spending at least one hour a week in prayer before the Eucharist in the tabernacle or exposed in the monstrance on the altar.
“At this critical time in the history of the world and our Church, we need to avail ourselves of the spiritual resources at our disposition, to plead for God's mercy upon us, and to ask for the grace of authentic renewal in our lives as His disciples,” the archbishop concludes in his message.