Day 3 – May 24th – Feast of our Lady Help of
Christians
~Prayers~
O my sovereign Queen and worthy Mother of my God, most holy
Mary; I seeing myself, as I do, so despicable and loaded with so many sins,
ought not to presume to call thee Mother, or even to approach thee; yet I will
not allow my miseries to deprive me of the consolation and confidence that I
feel in calling thee mother; I know well that I deserve that thou shouldst
reject me; but I beseech thee to remember all that thy Son Jesus has endured
for me, and then reject me if thou canst.
I am a wretched sinner, who, more than all others, have despised the infinite
majesty of God: but the evil is done. To
thee have I recourse; thou canst help me; my Mother, help me. Say not that thou canst not do so; for I know
that thou art all-powerful, and that thou obtainest whatever thou desirest of
God; and if thou sayest that thou wilt not help me, tell me at least to whom I
can apply in this my so great misfortune.
"Either pity me," will I say with the devout St. Anselm,
"O my Jesus, and forgive me, and do thou pity me, my Mother Mary, by
interceding for me, or at least tell me to whom I can have recourse, who is
more compassionate, or in whom I can have greater confidence than in thee.”
(Prayer of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, The Glories of Mary)
Mary, Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God and our Mother, thou
seest how the Catholic Faith, in which we propose by the help of God to live
and die, and so attain to eternal glory, is everywhere assailed by the devil
and the world. Do thou, Help of Christians, renew thy victories as of old, for
the salvation of thy children. To thee we entrust our firm purpose of never
joining assemblies of heretics or sectaries. Do thou, all holy, offer to thy
divine Son our resolutions, and obtain from him the graces necessary to enable
us to remain steadfast in them to the end. Bring consolation to the visible
head of the Church; support the Catholic Episcopate; protect the Clergy and the
people who proclaim thee Queen ; hasten by the power of thy prayers the day
when all nations shall be gathered together around the Supreme Pastor. Amen.
Mary, help of Christians, pray for us.
(Prayer to Our Lady Help of Christians, by Pope Leo XIII, 20
December 1890, taken from the Raccolta)
~Reading for
Meditation~
Taken from Part I of
Chapter I of The Glories of Mary by Saint Alphonsus Maria de Ligouri, Bishop
and Doctor of the Church
The Eternal Father made Jesus Christ the King of justice,
and consequently universal Judge of the world: and therefore the royal prophet
signs: Give to the King Thy judgment, O God, and to the King's Son Thy justice
(Ps. lxxi. 2). Here a learned
interpreter takes up the sentence, and says: "O Lord, Thou has given
justice to Thy Son, because Thou has given mercy to the King's
Mother". And, on this subject, St.
Bonaventure, paraphrasing the words of David, thus interprets them: "Give
to the King Thy judgment, O God, and Thy mercy to the Queen his
Mother". Ernest, Archbishop of
Prague, also remarks, "that the Eternal Father gave the office of judge
and avenger to the Son, and that of showing mercy and relieving the necessitous
to the Mother" (Marial. c. 127).
This was foretold by the prophet David himself; for he says that God (so
to speak) consecrated Mary Queen of mercy, anointing her with the oil of
gladness: God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness (Ps. xliv. 8). In order that we miserable children of Adam
might rejoice, remembering that in heaven we have this great Queen, overflowing
with the unction of mercy and compassion towards us; and thus we can say with
St. Bonaventure, "O Mary, thou art full of the unction of mercy and of the
oil of compassion" (Spec. B.M.V. lect. 7); therefore God has anointed thee
with the oil of gladness.
And how beautifully does not Blessed Albert the Great apply
to this subject the history of Queen Esther, who was herself a great type of
our Queen Mary!
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