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Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary
St. Catherine of Siena
O Mary, Redemptress of Humankind, because by your flesh suffering in
the Word, the world was redeemed: Christ redeemed it by His Passion and
you by pain of body and spirit. I have recourse to you, Mary, and I offer
you my prayer for the Sweet Bride of Christ and for His Vicar on earth.
May the people be united and their hearts conformed to His.
Prayer XI
In you, O Mary, our human strength and freedom are revealed today…The
Angel was sent to you to announce the Mystery of the Divine Counsel and to
seek to know your will; and God’s Son did not come down into your womb
until you had given your will’s consent. He waited at the door of your
will for you to open to Him: for He wanted to come into you, but He would
never have entered unless you had opened to Him, saying, “Here I am, God’s
servant; let it be done to me as you have said.”
Feast of the Annunciation.
O Mary, Vessel of Humility, in which stays and burns the light of true
knowledge, with which you lifted yourself above yourself; and therefore
you were pleasing to the Eternal Father so He grasped you and drew you to
Himself, loving you with a special love; with this light and the fire of
your charity and with the oil of your humility, you drew and bent down His
divinity to come into you, although first He was drawn by the most blazing
fire of His inestimable charity to come to us.
Prayer XI
O Mary, my sweetest love! In you is written the Word from Whom we have
the teaching of life. You are the tablet which offers us that teaching. I
see this Word, even as soon as He was written in you, He was not without
the cross of holy desire. Immediately when He was conceived in you, the
desire to die for the salvation of humanity, for which He was incarnated,
was grafted and attached to Him. So it was a great cross to Him, to bear
that desire so much time when He would have wished that it might be
fulfilled at once.
Prayer XI
Today I ask boldly because it is the day of graces and I know that to
you, Mary, nothing is denied. O Mary, today your earth has sprouted a
Savior to us. O Mary, blessed are you among all the women of the ages, for
today you have given us of your flower. Today, the Godhead is united and
kneaded with our humanity so strongly that this union is never able to be
separated neither through death nor through our ingratitude. Rather, the
Godhead was always united, even with the Body in the sepulcher and with
the Soul in limbo...
Prayer XI
You, O Mary, are made a book in which today is written our rule. In you
today is written the wisdom of the Eternal Father. In you is manifest
today the strength and freedom of humanity. I say that it shows the human
dignity because if I look in you, Mary, I see that the hand of the Holy
Spirit has written in you the Trinity, forming in you the Word Incarnate,
the only-begotten Son of God…O Mary, I see this Word given to you to be in
you, and not the less was He separated from the Father, just as the word
which a person has in the mind, although it is uttered outside and
communicated to others, it does not leave nor is it separated from the
heart.
Prayer XI
St. Thomas Aquinas
O most blessed and sweet Virgin Mary, Mother of God, filled with all
tenderness, daughter of the most high King, Lady of the Angels, Mother of
all the faithful, on this day and all the days of my life, I entrust to
your merciful heart my body and my soul, all my acts, thoughts, choices,
desires, words, deeds, my entire life and death, so that, with your
assistance, all may be ordered to the good according to the will of your
beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Be to me, my most holy Lady, a
comforter and an ally against the stratagems and traps of the ancient
enemy and of all those who harbor ill intentions against me. From your
beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, request for me the grace to resist
firmly the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and a
constant resolve to sin no more and to persevere in your service and the
service of your beloved Son. My most holy Lady, I also beseech you to
obtain for me true obedience and true humility of heart so that I may
recognize myself truly as a sinner—wretched and weak—and powerless,
without the grace and help of my Creator and without your holy prayers, to
do any kind of good work or even to resist the unrelenting assaults of
evil. Procure for me also, O my most sweet Lady, perpetual purity of mind
and body, so that with a pure heart and chaste body I may be strengthened
to serve you and your beloved Son through the Dominican Order. From Him,
obtain for me a spirit of poverty willingly accepted with patience and
tranquility of mind, so that I will have the strength to sustain the
labors of this Order and to work for my own salvation and that of my
neighbors. Obtain for me as well, O most sweet Lady, true charity with
which from the depths of my heart I may love your most holy Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ, and, after Him, love you above all other things, and love my
neighbor in God and because of God. Thereby may I rejoice in his goodness,
sorrow over his evils, despise no one, never judge rashly, and never in my
heart exalt myself over anyone. Grant, O Queen of Heaven, that ever in my
heart I may have fear and love alike for your most sweet Son; that I may
always give thanks for the many blessings bestowed upon me not for my
merits but by His kindness; and that I may ever make a pure and sincere
confession and do true penance for my sins, in order that I might deserve
to obtain His mercy and grace. I pray also that, at the end of my life,
you, Mother without compare, Gate of Heaven, and Advocate of sinners, will
not allow me, your unworthy servant, to stray from the holy Catholic faith
but that you will protect me with your great piety and mercy, defend me
from evil spirits, and obtain for me, through the blessed and glorious
Passion of your Son and through your own intercession, received in hope,
the forgiveness of all of my sins. When I die in your love and His love,
may you direct me into the way of salvation and blessedness. Amen.
Devoutly I Adore Thee p. 21 |
