MANILA, March 12, 2013— Various Catholic youth organizations band together to begin a prayer vigil Tuesday that will last until a new pope is elected in Vatican.
Organizers from YouthPinoy, a group of young ministers, missionaries and coordinators, said they want to accompany the cardinals with their prayers for the spiritual fruitfulness of this historic moment.
“This is very inspiring because this initiative came from the youth themselves,” said Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, CBCP Media Office Director, who led a Mass to start the prayer vigil.
“They used the social media… they discussed it there that’s why we have this vigil,” he said.
The vigil will be held every night at the Archdiocese of Manila’s chapel in Intramuros until a new pontiff is chosen.
Lay leaders of the National Movement for Mary Mediatrix of All Grace also sounded the call for united prayers for the world’s cardinals as they began a conclave to elect the successor of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
“In humble supplication to Mary we beg for an overflow from abundance of the graces of the Mater Ecclesiae for the Universal Church during these days of waiting and anticipation,” the Marian devotees said in a statement.
The National Movement is a coalition of different groups promoting devotion to Mary through the revival of the Lipa apparitions and the dissemination of the messages transmitted to the seer Teresita Castillo.
Antonio Ag. Medina, the group’s Metro Manila-based spokesman, said Benedict XVI on the day that he resigned last Feb. 11 invoked Mary Mediatrix of All Graces for the mission of the archbishop he had sent as his representative to the celebration of the World Day of the Sick at a Marian shrine in Germany.
“As devotees of the Blessed Mother under her universal mediation, we too invoke her in prayer under the title of Mediatrix of All Grace, praying specially the Rosary, with the election of a new head of the Catholic Church ever in our minds during this time of decision,” Medina added.
Meanwhile, Brenda Padilla of the Confraternity of Mary Mediatrix of All Grace recalled that in her apparition in Lipa, “the Blessed Virgin Mary asked for individual Total Consecration to oneself according to the formula of St. Louis Grignon de Monfort and so it is in this spirit that the Confraternity prays for the conclave of the Cardinals of the Roman Church – through, in and with our Blessed Mother.”
The Confraternity is promoting the 33 days preparation for consecration to the Mediatrix following the teachings of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort. (CBCPNews)
