Saturday, December 12, 2020
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
On December 12, 2020, Bishop DeGrood will be privately offering prayers of deliverance from evil over everyone and everything in our diocese. He is offering the prayers of deliverance so any evil influence will be removed, allowing everyone in our diocese to live in the freedom of God’s grace and love. As St. Paul reminds us, there is a spiritual battle raging around us: “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.” (Eph 6:12) As our bishop, Bishop DeGrood is a successor to the Apostles, and the Apostles handed on to the bishops the authority which they received from Jesus, including the authority to cast out evil.
On the same day, at the 4:00 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph, Bishop DeGrood will be consecrating our diocese to Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Joseph because as our spiritual Mother, she is the patroness of the Americas, and St. Joseph, as a spiritual father, is patron of our diocese and the Universal Church. By consecrating our diocese to these two amazing spiritual advocates, protectors and intercessors, we can be assured of great spiritual fruitfulness in our diocese and in souls who are open to the amazing transformational love of God.
Through these prayers, our bishop—who is our spiritual father and high priest of the Diocese—is praying in a profound way for us as his flock, that we will be freed from the temptation of our spiritual foes in order to live in the freedom of the children of God, which we are by our baptism. And by praying following prayers of consecration, we can participate with Bishop DeGrood in this great spiritual work.
Consecratory prayers all clergy, consecrated laity are encouraged to pray:
St. John Paul II’s Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe from his 1979 Visit to Mexico
O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of the true God and Mother of the Church, who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity to all those who ask for your protection, hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust, and present it to your Son Jesus, our sole Redeemer.
Mother of Mercy, Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice, to you, who come to meet us sinners, we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love. We also dedicate to you our life, our work, our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows. Grant peace, justice and prosperity to our peoples; for we entrust to your care all that we have and all that we are, our Lady and Mother. We wish to be entirely yours and to walk with you along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church; hold us always with your loving hand.
Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, we pray to you for all the Bishops, that they may lead the faithful along paths of intense Christian life, of love and humble service of God and souls. Contemplate this immense harvest, and intercede with the Lord that He may instill a hunger for holiness in the whole people of God, and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious, strong in the faith and zealous dispensers of God’s mysteries.
Grant to our homes the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings, with the same love with which you conceived in your womb the life of the Son of God. Blessed Virgin Mary, protect our families, so that they may always be united, and bless the upbringing of our children.
Our hope, look upon us with compassion, teach us to go continually to Jesus and, if we fall, help us to rise again, to return to Him, by means of the confession of our faults and sins in the Sacrament of Penance, which gives peace to the soul.
We beg you to grant us a great love for all the Holy Sacraments, which are, as it were, the signs that your Son left us on earth.
Thus, Most Holy Mother, with the peace of God in our conscience, with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all true joy and true peace, which come to us from your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
Prayer of Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe
Adapted from the Diocese of Metuchen 2019 consecration
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of God, and Mother of the Church, you who were chosen by the Father from all eternity, to offer the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus Christ, as the one pleasing sacrifice back to God; and, whom that same Son, at the moment of his agony gave the Church, you as Mother forever: listen to the prayers of your children, who cry to you, and intercede for us before your Son in heaven.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, we consecrate ourselves to you, for you do not abandon any person who loves your Son, Jesus, but instead accompany the Christian people in true discipleship.
We pledge ourselves to you, O most beautiful Virgin, and entrust ourselves, and our diocese, to your powerful intercession for you have never forsaken the prayer of faith, but constantly show to your Son the sorrows of your heart, that He may have favor towards all who turn to you.
Help us, Joyful Mother, through your example of living the Gospel, to faithfully proclaim Jesus Christ to be Savior of our hearts; and lead us, by your overflowing grace, to return, with you, to the throne of your Son; where, with you as our Queen and Mother, we shall forever enjoy fellowship with Him and all the saints.
Therefore, assist us in our prayer to the Father, that we, as the Church, may be renewed as missionary disciples, to set hearts on fire here in our Diocese of Sioux Falls so that, the world may come to know the love of Christ that will transform all people.
Mother of the Americas and Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us.
Prayers from “Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father” by Father Donald H. Calloway
Act of Consecration to St. Joseph
O dearest St. Joseph, I consecrate myself to your honor and give myself to you, that you may always be my father, my protector and my guide in the way of salvation. Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and fervent love of the interior life. After your example may I do all my actions for the greater glory of God, in union with the Divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. O Blessed St. Joseph, pray for me, that I may share in the peace and joy of your holy death. Amen.
Prayer of Consecration used by the Diocese of Charlotte
O Glorious Patriarch and Patron of the Church! O Virgin Spouse of the Virgin Mother of God! O Guardian and Virginal Father of the Word Incarnate! In the presence of Jesus and Mary, I choose you this day to be my father, my guardian, and my protector.
O great St. Joseph, whom God has made the Head of the Holy Family, accept me, I beseech you, though utterly unworthy, to be a member of your “Holy House.” Present me to your Immaculate Spouse; ask her also to adopt me as her child. With her, pray that I may constantly think of Jesus, and serve him faithfully to the end of my life. O Terror of Demons, increase in me virtue, protect me from the evil one, and help me not to offend God in any way.
O my Spiritual Father, I hereby consecrate myself to you. In faithful imitation of Jesus and Mary, I place myself and all my concerns under your care and protection. To you, after Jesus and Mary, I consecrate my body and soul, with all their faculties, my spiritual growth, my home, and all my affairs and undertakings.
Forsake me not, but adopt me as a servant and child of the Holy Family. Watch over me at all times, but especially at the hour of my death. Console and strengthen me with the presence of Jesus and Mary so that, with you, I may praise and adore the Holy Trinity for all eternity. Amen.
Memorare to St. Joseph & Act of Consecration to St. Joseph
(Online at EWTN’s website and used by Archbishop Listecki to consecrate the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to St. Joseph.)
Remember, O most chaste spouse of the Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who implored your help and sought your intercession were left unassisted. Full of confidence in your power I fly unto you and beg your protection. Despise not O Guardian of the Redeemer my humble supplication, but in your bounty, hear and answer me. Amen.