The following prayers are added, not only for the use of the faithful, but also because they show the great idea which the saints had of the power and mercy of Mary, and their great confidence in her patronage.
Prayer of St. Ephrem
O immaculate and wholly pure Virgin Mary! Mother of God, Queen of the universe, our most excellent Lady, you are raised above all the saints; you are the only hope of the Fathers, and the joy of the saints. By you we have been reconciled to our God. You are the only advocate of sinners, the secure haven of the shipwrecked. You are the consolation of the world, the redemption of captives, the joy of the sick, the comfort of the afflicted, the refuge and salvation of the whole world. O great princess! Mother of God! cover us with the wings of your compassion; have pity on us. We have no hope but in you, O most pure Virgin! We are given to you, and consecrated to your service; we bear the name of your servants; do not permit Lucifer to draw us down to hell. O immaculate Virgin! we are under your protection; therefore, with one accord we have recourse to you, and beg you to prevent your Son, whom our sins have offended, from abandoning us to the power of the devil.
O full of grace! illuminate my mind, loosen my tongue that it may sing your praises, and especially the Angelic Salutation, so worthy of you. I salute you, O peace! O joy! O salvation and consolation of the whole world! I salute you, O greatest of miracles! paradise of delight! secure haven of those who are in danger! fountain of grace! mediatrix of God and men!
Prayer of St. Bernard
We raise our eyes to you, O Queen of the world. After having committed so many sins, we must appear before our Judge, and who will appease him? None can do it better than you, O blessed Lady, who have loved him so much, and have been so tenderly beloved by him. Open, then, O Mother of mercy, the ears of your heart to our sighs and prayers. We fly to your protection; appease the anger of your Son, and restore us to his favor. You do not abhor the sinner, however loathsome he may be; you do not despise him, if he sends up his sighs to you, and with contrition asks your intercession; you, with your kind hand, deliver him from despair; you encourage him to hope, comfort him, and do not leave him until you have reconciled him to his Judge.
You are that only one in whom the Savior found his rest, and with whom he has deposited all his treasures. Hence all the world, O Mary, honors your chaste womb, as the temple of God, where the salvation of the world had its beginning. In you was effected the reconciliation between God and man. You are the enclosed garden, O great Mother of God, whose flowers have never been gathered by the sinner’s hand. You are the beautiful garden, in which God has placed all the flowers which adorn the Church, such as the violet of your humility, the lily of your purity, and the rose of your charity. Who can be compared to you, O Mother of grace and of beauty? You are the paradise of God. From you has sprung up the fountain of living water, that waters all the earth. Oh, how many favors have you bestowed upon the world, by meriting to be the channel of the waters of salvation!
Of you the Holy Spirit speaks when he says: Who is she that arises like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun? You have come, then, into the world, O Mary, as a resplendent dawn, preceding, with the light of your sanctity, the coming of the Sun of Justice. The day on which you appeared in the world may truly be called the day of salvation, the day of grace. You are fair as the moon; for as there is no planet more like the sun, so there is no creature more like God than you are. The moon illuminates the night with the light which it receives from the sun, and you illuminate our darkness with the splendor of your virtues; and you are fairer than the moon, because in you is found neither stain nor shade. You are bright as the sun—I mean as that Sun which created the sun; he has been chosen among all men, and you among all women. O sweet, O great, O most lovely Mary, your name cannot be spoken by anyone whom you do not inflame with your love; neither can those who love you think of you without feeling themselves encouraged to love you more.
O blessed Lady, help our weakness. And who is more fit to speak to our Lord Jesus Christ than you, who enjoy, so near to him, his sweet company? Speak, speak, O Lady, because your Son listens, and you will obtain from him whatever you shall ask.
Prayer of St. Germanus
O my only Lady, who are the sole consolation which I receive from God; you who are the only heavenly dew that soothes my pains; you who are the light of my soul when it is surrounded with darkness; you who are my guide in my journeys, my strength in my weakness, my treasure in my poverty; balm for my wounds, my consolation in sorrow; you who are my refuge in misery, the hope of my salvation—graciously hear my prayer, have pity on me, as is befitting the Mother of a God who has so much love for men. You who are our defense and joy, grant me what I ask; make me worthy of enjoying with you that great happiness which you enjoy in heaven. Yes, my Lady, my refuge, my life, my help, my defense, my strength, my joy, my hope, make me to come with you to paradise. I know that, being the Mother of God, you can obtain this for me if you will. O Mary, you are all-powerful to save sinners; you need nothing else to recommend us to you, for you are the Mother of true life.
Prayer of the Abbot of Celles, Surnamed the Idiot
Draw me after you, O Virgin Mary, that I may run to the fragrance of your perfumes. Draw me, for I am held back by the weight of my sins and by the malice of my enemies. As no one goes to your Son unless the divine Father draws him, so I would dare to say, in a certain sense, that no one goes to him if you do not draw him with your holy prayers. It is you who teach true wisdom; you who obtain pardon for sinners, because you are their advocate. It is you who promise glory to him who honors you, because you are the treasurer of graces.
You have found grace with God, O most sweet Virgin, because you have been preserved from the stain of original sin, filled with the Holy Spirit, and have conceived the Son of God. You have received all these graces, O most humble Mary, not only for yourself, but also for us, that you may help us in all our necessities. And so indeed you do; you succor the good by preserving them in grace, and the bad by bringing them to receive the divine mercy; you aid the dying by protecting them against the snares of the devil; and you aid them also after death by receiving their souls, and leading them to the kingdom of the blessed.
Prayer of St. Methodius
Your name, O Mother of God, is full of all graces and divine blessings. You have comprehended him who is incomprehensible, and nourished him who nourishes all living creatures. He who fills heaven and earth and is Lord of all, has chosen to have need of you, since you have clothed him with that garment of flesh that he had not before. Rejoice, O Mother and handmaid of God! rejoice! rejoice! you have for a debtor him to whom all creatures owe their being. We are all debtors to God, but God is a debtor to you. Hence it is, O most holy Mother of God, that you have greater goodness and greater charity than all the other saints, and more than all others have near access in heaven to God, because you are his Mother. Ah, we who celebrate your glories and know how great is your goodness pray you to be mindful of us and of our miseries.
Prayer of St. John Damascene
I salute you, O Mary! you are the hope of Christians; receive the petition of a servant who tenderly loves you, especially honors you, and places in you all the hope of his salvation. From you I have life; you restore me to the favor of your Son; you are the certain pledge of my salvation. I implore you, then, to deliver me from the burden of my sins; dispel the darkness of my mind; banish earthly affections from my heart; repel the temptations of my enemies, and so order my life, that I may reach, by your means and by your guidance, the eternal happiness of paradise.
Prayer of St. Andrew of Crete, or of Jerusalem
I salute you, O full of grace! the Lord is with you. I salute you, O cause of our joy, by whom the sentence of our condemnation has been already revoked, and changed into a judgment of benediction. I salute you, O temple of the glory of God, sacred house of the King of Heaven. You are the reconciliation of God with men. I salute you, O Mother of our joy. In truth you are blessed, for you alone, among all women, have been found worthy of being the Mother of your Creator. All nations call you blessed.
O Mary, if I put my confidence in you I shall be saved; if I am under your protection I have nothing to fear, for to be your servant is to have the secure armor of salvation, which God does not grant except to those whom he will save.
O Mother of mercy, appease your Son. While you were on earth you occupied but a small part of it; but now that you are raised above the highest heaven, the whole world looks to you as the propitiatory of all nations. We beseech you, then, O holy Virgin, to grant us the aid of your prayers with God—prayers which are dearer and more precious to us than all the treasures of earth; prayers that render God inclined to forgive our sins, and that obtain for us abundant graces to receive the pardon of them and to practice virtue; prayers that conquer our enemies, confound their designs, and triumph over their forces.
Prayer of St. Ildephonsus
I come to you, O Mother of God; I beseech you to obtain for me the pardon of my sins, and that I may be purified from all the errors of my life. I pray you to grant me your grace, that I may unite myself with affection to your Son and to you—to your Son as to my God, to you as to the Mother of my God.
Prayer of St. Athanasius
Hearken, O most holy Virgin, to our prayers, and remember us. Dispense to us the gifts of your riches, and the abundant graces with which you are filled. The archangel salutes you and calls you full of grace. All nations call you blessed; the whole hierarchy of heaven blesses you, and we, who are of the earthly hierarchy, also say to you: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you”; pray for us, O Mother of God, our Lady and our Queen.
Prayer of St. Anselm
We pray you, O most blessed Lady, by that grace which God bestowed on you when he so greatly exalted you, rendering all things possible to you with him; we pray you to obtain for us that the fullness of grace which you have merited may make us to share your glory. Be pleased, O most merciful Lady, to procure for us the good for which God consented to become man in your chaste womb. Be not slow to hear us. If you will deign to entreat your Son, he will at once graciously hear you. It is enough that you will to save us, for then we cannot but be saved. Who can restrain the depths of your compassion? If you have not compassion on us, you who are the Mother of mercy, what will become of us when your Son shall come to judge us?
Come, then, to our succor, O most compassionate Mother, without regarding the multitude of our sins. Remember again and again that our Creator has taken human flesh from you, not to condemn sinners, but to save them. If you had been made Mother of God only for your own advantage, it might be said that it would be of little importance to you whether we were saved or condemned; but God has clothed himself with your flesh for your salvation and for that of all men. What will it avail us that you are so powerful and so glorious, if you do not render us partakers of your happiness? Aid us and protect us; remember the need we have of your assistance. We recommend ourselves to you; save us from damnation, and make us serve and love eternally your Son Jesus Christ.
Prayer of St. Peter Damian
Holy Virgin, Mother of God, succor those who implore your assistance. Turn to us. But, having been deified, as it were, have you forgotten men? Ah, certainly not. You know in what peril you have left us, and the wretched condition of your servants; no, it is not befitting a mercy so great, to forget so great a misery as ours. Turn to us with your power, because he who is powerful has given you omnipotence in heaven and on earth. To you nothing is impossible, for you can raise even the despairing to the hope of salvation. You must be compassionate as you are powerful.
Turn to us, also, in your love. I know, O my Lady, that you are all kindness, and love us with a love that no other love can surpass. How you appease the anger of our Judge when he is on the point of punishing us for our offenses! All the treasures of the mercy of God are in your hands. Ah, may it never happen that you should cease from doing us good: you seek but the occasion of saving all sinners, and of bestowing your mercy upon them; for your glory increases when, by your means, penitents are pardoned, and the pardoned come to paradise. Turn, then, to us, that we may come to see you in heaven; for the greatest glory we can obtain, next to seeing God, is to see you, to love you, and to be under your protection. Ah, graciously hear us, since your Son wishes to honor you by granting all your requests.
Prayer of St. William, Bishop of Paris
O Mother of God, I fly to you, and I implore you not to cast me off, for the whole Church of the faithful calls you, and proclaims you the Mother of mercy. You are so dear to God, that you are always graciously heard; your compassion has never been wanting to anyone; your most gracious kindness has never despised any sinner, however enormous his sin, who has recommended himself to you. Does the Church falsely and in vain call you her advocate, and the refuge of the unhappy? No; let my sins never prevent you from exercising your great office of mercy, by which you are the advocate, the mediatrix of reconciliation, the only hope, and the most secure refuge of sinners. Let it never be that the Mother, who, for the good of the whole world, brought forth him who is the fountain of mercy, should refuse her mercy to any sinner who has recourse to her. It is your office to reconcile God to man; let then your compassion move you to help me, for it is greater than all my sins.
Prayer to the Most Holy Mary
O most holy, immaculate Virgin, and my Mother Mary, to you who are the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the world, the advocate, the hope, the refuge of sinners, I, the most miserable of all, have recourse this day. I adore you, O great Queen, and thank you for all the favors you have until now granted me, especially for having delivered me from hell, which I have so often deserved. I love you, O most amiable Lady, and through the love I bear you I promise that I will always serve you, and do all that I can that you may also be loved by others. I place in you all my hopes of salvation; accept me for your servant, and receive me under your mantle, O Mother of mercy. And since you are so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations, or obtain for me the strength to conquer them always until death. From you I ask a true love for Jesus; from you I hope to die a good death. O my Mother, by the love you bear to God, I pray you always to help me, but most of all at the last moment of my life. Do not leave me until you see me actually safe in heaven, blessing you, and singing your mercies throughout all eternity. Amen. Thus I hope. Thus may it be.