Poems, Meditations and Prayers
to Our Blessed Mother
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Ora Pro Nobis
I fly unto your patronage, my mother,
Ora pro nobis.
You who never leave anyone unaided,
but lay all our sighs, mourning and tears
at the feet of your Son,
Ora pro nobis.
You who try to keep us under your mantle
like your little children
wrapped safe against the wind and the rain,
Ora pro nobis.
Thank you for caring when we wander far away
and you come searching to call us home,
Ora pro nobis.
Thank you for teaching us
to cherish your Son
and show us his ways,
Ora pro nobis.
Thank you for being willing to be mother of us all,
O Mother of the Word Incarnate.
Prayer to Mary Immaculate, Help of Christians
Blessed Mother,
Help of Christians,
Mary most pure,
teach us to see with your eyes,
to act with that love
that comes only from loving and knowing your son,
to be your son's hands on this earth,
to be channels of God's light
in this dark world.
O Immaculata,
O Mother most kind,
pray for us now and at the hour of our deaths,
Amen.
Prayer to Mary Immaculate
O Blessed Mother,
O Mary, Immaculate Heart
that watches over this troubled world
with such infinite patience,
with such steadfast love,
with such kindness and care,
O Mary,
we don't deserve such a mother as you,
but thank you for being willing to share
the love of your son
with each and every one of us.
Thank you for treating us
as your own little children -
how often have you searched and waited for us
like you did when the child Jesus
stayed behind at the Temple.
When we hurt,
thank you for covering us with your mantle,
giving us someone to hug,
a lap to cry on.
Thank you for all the times you have dried our eyes.
And thank your Son
for the great mercy of sharing you with us.
O I pray, dearest Mary, sweet mother,
that every day I can grow a little bit more like you.
Prayer to Our Sorrowful Mother
Immaculate Mary,
O Lady of Sorrows,
Given to us by Jesus while he suffered on the cross,
The last thing he had left to give before he gave up
his life,
Pray for us.
In our dark days,
may we remember your dark days,
and come to learn how much you care,
how much you were willing to give for Jesus,
May we learn always from your loving example.
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
A Prayer for Children
Sweet Blessed Mother,
O Mary, mother of us all,
This morning I pray
For all the babies conceived to be biosamples,
For all the children ripped from their mothers' wombs,
For all the children abandoned by their parents at
birth,
For all the children dumped by their families and left
to fend for their own in cities throughout the world,
For all the children kidnapped to be soldiers in wars
they cannot understand,
For all the children who live under the threat of
abuse, physical, mental and sexual,
For children starving because of famine or neglect,
For children killed by local authorities because they
are embarrassed by the numbers of abandoned children
haunting their streets,
For children killed by people because they belonged to
the wrong faith, wrong color or wrong ethnic or
political group,
For children accused of socery to excuse their parents'
problems, and then tortured or abandoned,
For children forced to work in unsafe conditions,
For children growing up starved of knowledge of God,
For children growing up starved of love.
Keep them under your mantle, Blessed Mother,
May we never forget how much they are loved by your Son,
And may my eyes always be open
to ways to help them.
A Prayer for the Strength to Submit to God's Will
O Blessed Mother,
I long to answer the call of your son
like you answered the announcement of the angel,
"Be it done to me according to thy word,"
no matter the cost,
But I am weak, and wavering,
And fall so often.
O sweet Mary,
Thank you for being there
when I lay in the dust,
unable to stand up,
to take me by the hand,
and lead me back to your Son.
Pray for me, O holy mother of God,
that my good intentions
grow into realities,
and that I can live up to my longing
to tell God
"Not my will, but thine!"
The Nailing
Did those who stood by you that awful day
tell you not to look,
O Lady of Sorrows,
As he was thrown to the ground,
naked, battered, bloody,
stretched out upon that dreadful crossbeam?
Did you cling to the Magdalene, O Sorrowful Mother,
as the Roman guards,
methodical and professional,
put those large square nails against his wrists,
hit hammer against nail?
Could anything prepare you
for the cries
ripped from his throat
as they finished their task?
On the Assumption
Oh Blessed Mother,
when I think of your falling asleep
being reunited forever with your Son
assumed into Heaven
where you could become mother of us all,
I long to say,
Thank you, Mother,
for caring for us all,
for covering us with your mantle,
for looking after us when we stray,
for leading us home to your son.
Thank you Mother,
for all the sorrows, toil and care
you were willing to give
during your earthly life,
and thank you for trying so hard to reach
a hardheaded mankind
that too often chooses to go its own way.
Thank you Mother,
for helping to teach us how to be salt, light, and
leaven in this dark and sad world,
may we always be open to further your intentions,
and those of the sacred heart of your divine Son.
Amen
Some Meditations in Text
Meditation on Mary's Last Moments with Jesus
For me, personally, the one thing which is the saddest
is contemplation of that moment when Mary is left alone
with the body of her son...How hard it must have been...
I visualize it sort of this way. Our Lord's body lays
on a stone shelf, perhaps already on half of the
shroud, where loving hands have laid him after washing
away what they could have of the day's horrors. She
sits there beside him, holding his cold hand, once so
able and loving, and looks at his poor battered face,
swollen from the abuse he had received. With Mary, I
meditate on the abrasions, cuts, blow marks, wounds,
and think of the words of the prophet, "By his stripes
we were healed."
Oh unimaginable day, that must have started when some
discple knocked on her door with the awful news of his
arrest. She had been there for him as much as she
could, heard the cries of pain as the nails passed
through his wrists, as they hauled the crossbar up to
it's place on the supporting post, his words of
forgiveness and blessing, his heart-rending cry of "Why
have you forsaken me?" Now he was gone, this wonderous
child born that night so many years ago...the sign that
would be contradicted, and now the sword Simeon
promised had indeed piered her heart.
Heavy, heavy must the numbing grieving shock and
fatigue that she was feeling by this moment. To stand
there for hours, to say yes to God when all that was
most precious to you was being tortured to death. Were
the hands who had come to comfort her, sister, friend,
follower of her son comforted instead by her steadfast
love?
But in the end, it comes down to this sad, sad
moment...saying goodbye. How fragile and small she
must have seen to those few friends gathered there to
do the final deed, hovering nearby at a respectful
distance, so beaten down. Silently the tears slide
down her cheek to fall on her beloved son's face as she
bends over to wipe his brow, touch his hair and kiss
him goodbye one last time.
I can see John coming behind her to help her up and
away one last time, as she walks into what must have
been the darkest of nights in her life.
Contemplating this moment, all I can say is "O my Lord,
I am so, so very sorry," knowing full well that my sins
are part of why this moment happened. I come away
thankful and amazed that Jesus would ever want to have
anything more to do with us.
Meditation on the Assumption
In my mind, sometimes when I think about the assumption, I think of
Mary, after a brief rest when they laid her in what they thought was
to be her tomb, wakes out of that rest to the sound of her Son's voice.
"Mother!" he says, taking her by the hand and sitting her up. "Come,
Mother, are you ready?"
Knowing full well she has crossed that threshold between life to the
hearafter, she smiles on him with that radiant smile she gave him as
an infant, drinking in that face she has loved so well.
"Mother," says Jesus, "Now it is time for your real work to begin!"
(This is not to belittle ANY of the things she did in her life - I
mean real work in the sense of a whole lot of stuff to do!)
Mary has been busy being our mother in ways she just couldn't have
accomplished in life...and it is such a wonderful thing that she does
just this...mother us along, kissing our bruised knees, so to say, and
always being there when we need to whine about how bad the world has
been. She often will come looking for us when we need finding. She
never fusses, but I am sure she worries about us all...But most
wonderfully of all, she brings us to her son and says, "Do what he
tells you." And in her adoration of him, in her patient loving
response we learn much of just how to do that!
Thoughts on the Fifth Joyful Mystery
Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple
This in a way, is a mystery close to my heart. How
many of us at some time or other have lost Jesus? Have
woken up and discovered how far away and lost we were,
because we had let him slip away from us?
Mary and Joseph had travelled a day's journey before
they realized they had lost him. This can be a
metaphor for those of us who have let our relationship
with Jesus slip through our fingers. We get busy with
everyday things, and neglect to check to make sure he
is with us. Before we know it, we are miles away
from him.
Of course, Mary shows us the proper way - She returned
the way whe came, and went searching. When we lose our
Lord, we have to go back. And where should we look?
In God's temple...We can always find Jesus in the
church, in the Eucharist, in doing God's work.
This mystery is one of the joyful mysteries that is
also one of Mary's sorrows. It is a sad, sad thing
when we lose our Lord. But it is in the joyful
mysteries, because the great joy we have when we are
reunited with him. Those of us who have fallen away,
or felt their faith get weak, and then rediscovered
Jesus back in the Church and the sacraments know how
great the joy is when we return.
And this is why I love story so much.
All original contents of this page copyright 2003 by Susan E. Stone.
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