Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Pray for Us

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
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0 Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. 0 purest Mary, 0 sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, 0 Blessed Lady, to help me, whenever I call on thee; for, in all my temptations, in all my needs, I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

0 what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what emotion, fill my soul when I utter thy sacred name, or even only think of thee. I thank the Lord for having given thee, for my good so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely uttering thy name. Let my love for thee prompt me ever to hail thee, Mother of Perpetual Help.---3 Hail Marys.


My grandmother had a particular devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The picture you see above is identical to one that she always kept hanging in her kitchen. (thanks to Moneybags) "My" chair faced that picture--it's something I will always remember from that house. There was never any doubt that my grandmother was Catholic; all you had to do was look at the wall art to see that!

I guess it's the Irish in me that makes me look for "God-coincidences" a lot of the time. I'm sure it's no accident that today, on the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, we will find out what the Bishop has decided about the fate of our school. And it's hard to lay this whole thing in the hands of God, but that is what I am trying to do. Today I will pray that the Blessed Mother will help all of us in our school community to have the grace to handle whatever comes.

Thanks to A Catholic Life, my source for the prayer AND the picture.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My confirmation name is Perpetua, from Our Lady of Perpetual Help. What a coincidence. My godmother must have known that I'd need a lot of help in my life. :-)