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Prayer To Our Lady, Help Of Christians
Most Holy Virgin Mary, Help of Christian,
how sweet it is to come to your feet
imploring your perpetual help.
If earthly mothers cease not to remember their children,
how can you, the most loving of all mothers forget me?
Grant then to me, I implore you,
your perpetual help in all my necessities,
in every sorrow, and especially in all my temptations.
I ask for your unceasing help for all who are now suffering.
Help the weak, cure the sick, convert sinners.
Grant through your intercessions many vocations to the religious life.
Obtain for us, O Mary, Help of Christians,
that having invoked you on earth we may love and eternally thank you in heaven.
By St. John Bosco | |
- Mary, Help of Christians
- In the Paschal Season, the first reading is from the 12th chapter of the Apocalypse; the rest of the year it is from the 3rd chapter of Genesis. Both texts prophesy the victory of "the Woman" over the Serpent or the Dragon. One occurs at the beginning of the Bible, the other at the end. This Woman, whose offspring or son is the instrument of victory, is understood to be the image of the New Sion, the Church, the holy people of messianic times. Yet at the same time she can be considered the image of Mary, daughter of Sion, type of the Church and mother of the redeemed people. In these readings, Mary is the New Eve; she is the Mother of the Living. In both cases she faces conflict and this conflict continues for "the rest of her children" who are also menaced. However, the Woman is always there to assist them.
- The assistance of the Woman is especially helpful to those engaged in "new wars" and who keep the commandments of God."
- Saint Pius V gave Mary the title: "Help of Christians," after the victory of the Christian fleet over the Turks at Lepanto on October 7, 1571, and he added this invocation to her litany. When Pius VII returned to Rome on May 24, 1814, after spending five years of exile and captivity, he established the Feast of Our Lady, Helper of the Papal States.
- The invocation of Mary as Help of Christians is part of the oldest prayer addressed directly to Mary, the "Sub tuum praesidium," which was found on a papyrus dating, at the latest, from the end of the third century. This prayer was composed at a time of great danger for Christians and for the Church. "Praesidium" is translated as "an assistance given in time of war by fresh troops in a strong manner."
- Yet, Mary help of all Christians is not only helpful to those engaged in new wars, as the Gospel shows quite clearly. She is the bearer of joy, readying all Christians of good will to receive God's grace and the many gifts of life. Yes, ultimately, it is the caring woman of Cana who makes victory over dragon and serpent possible -- in letting Christ act on his own terms and at his own hour. Anthony de Mello writes in conclusion to the introduction of his last book:
- I dedicate this book to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who has always been for me a model of contemplation. She has been more: I am convinced that it is her intercession that has obtained for me, and for many of the people I have guided, graces in prayer that we should never have acquired otherwise. There, then, is my first piece of advice to you if you would make progress in the art of contemplation: Seek her patronage and ask for her intercession before you start out on this way. She has been given the charisma of drawing down the Holy Spirit on the Church, as she did at the Annunciation and at Pentecost, when she prayed with the Apostles. If you get her to pray with you and for you, you will be very fortunate indeed.
- This, then, is Mary, the help of all Christians because the contemplative active. And as such, she is the star that prepares the coming of the rising sun, Christ. Christians can do without Californian socialite-astrologers. The Venerable Bede, whose memory we celebrate today, already knew this when he opened his treatise, "De natura rerum", with these words: "I, Bede, servant of God, have summarized in brief notices the various natures of things and the broad periods of the passing age. You who read the stars, I beseech you, look with fixed mind above to the everlasting day. Amen
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