Auckland Bishop Stephen Lowe, who led a small group of worshippers in prayer at the St Patrick’s Cathedral on March 25, stressed the need for “peace to take flesh” during this time as the possibility of another world war looms.
New Zealand Catholics were urged by their bishops to join Pope Francis in prayer as the Holy Father consecrated Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the same day (March 25).
“This year, the New Zealand bishops have asked us to go, not just to pray, but to come to their churches, to make a hikoi, a journey to their churches, thinking as they do . . . of the people that are making their journey to safety. Our churches should always be a place of safety and sanctuary. This is what this is about,” Bishop Lowe told NZ Catholic after the prayer.
He said that the pilgrimage to their (parishioners’) churches is really “the journey to the heart of Christ and also to the Immaculate Heart of Mary”.
“It was by her Fiat that we celebrate today the feast of the Annunciation . . . that the Prince of Peace was conceived and took flesh among us. And we need once again for peace to take flesh within our humanity,” Bishop Lowe added.
Bishop Lowe said this is not the first time that the New Zealand bishops have asked this country’s Catholics to go to their churches to pray in unity with other Catholics, citing the time of the 9/11 attack, as well as the more recent Christchurch mosque attack, as some of the events that Catholics were called to pray together.
“But this is . . . the Ukraine,” he said, “nobody really believed we would see another war like this in Western Europe again. This is the tragedy. And nobody wants to see this descend into another world war. The Holy Father is right to be really concerned about this.”
Bishop Lowe led devotees of the Divine Mercy in a 3 o’clock prayer of the rosary before the Blessed Sacrament, and then proceeded to the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Bishop Lowe said that they purposefully did not advertise a time for the rosary, to avoid having to impose a 100-person limit under current Covid-19 restrictions.
Covid
Archbishop Paul Martin, SM, was unable to attend the prayer for Ukraine on March 25, after those at the cathedral presbytery in Christchurch had to isolate when one of the priests tested positive for Covid-19. The presbytery household had to isolate for a week from March 24.
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