The Romero
Foundation in El Salvador has announced its theme for the 35th anniversary of
the martyrdom of Archbishop Óscar A. Romero of El Salvador on March 24. Taken from his notes on his last Lenten
retreat, made just weeks before his 1980 assassination, the phrase to be used
this year is: “My disposition must be to give my life for God, whatever the end of my
life is.”
Romero entered
the Feb. 1980 retreat with a troubled heart.
“I am afraid of violence to myself,”
he confessed in notes he made at the beginning of the retreat, having recently
received death threats. “I fear because of the weakness of my flesh,
but I pray the Lord to give me serenity and perseverance,” he wrote. By the end of the retreat, Romero appeared to
be spiritually fortified and prepared to accept his martyrdom. He made his final consecration to the Sacred
Heart:
Eternal
Lord of all things, I make my oblation with Thy favor and help before Thy
infinite goodness and before Thy glorious Mother and all the saints of the
heavenly court; that I want and desire and that it is my deliberate
determination, only to be of greater service and praise to Thee, to imitate
Thee in suffering all injuries, all blame and all poverty, be it material or
spiritual, wishing to choose Thy most blessed majesty and to receive it in such
life and condition. Thus do I express my consecration to the heart of Jesus,
who was ever a source of inspiration and joy in my life.
Then he added.
Thus
also I place under His loving providence all my life, and I accept with faith
in Him my death, however hard it be.
Three weeks
later, he was assassinated. His
beatification is pending in the Vatican and is expected to advance this year.
Previous Year Themes:
2012 motto
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