MAY 24: MARY, HELP OF CHRISTIANS.
PRAYER OF ST. JOHN BOSCO.
Dear brethren in Christ, below you have St. John Bosco’s prayer to Mother Mary, Help of Christians. Happy Feast Day to all, especially to our Salesian brethren!
Most Holy Virgin Mary, Help of Christians,
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.
– St. John Bosco
Todays is also the WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH IN CHINA as well as the feast of Our Lady of Sheshan, a big feast in China. As such, we greet all our Catholic brethren in China.
During the General Audience of May 20, 2015, Pope Francis made an appeal:
- “On May 24, Catholics in China will be praying with devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, at the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai. In the statue overlooking the Shrine, Mary is holding up her Son, presenting Him to the world with arms open in a gesture of love and mercy.
- MAY WE, TOO, ASK MARY TO HELP CATHOLICS IN CHINA TO BE EVER MORE CREDIBLE WITNESSES OF THIS MERCIFUL LOVE IN THE MIDST OF THEIR PEOPLE, AND TO LIVE SPIRITUALLY UNITED TO THE ROCK OF PETER ON WHICH THE CHURCH IS BUILT.”
Let us ask God the Holy Spirit to pour forth His abundant blessings to the Catholic Church in China through the intercession of Our Lady of Sheshan, Help of Christians, with the prayer of our beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2008:
Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother,
venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title “Help of Christians”,
the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection.
We come before you today to implore your protection.
Look upon the People of God and, with a mother’s care, guide them
along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always be
a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens
When you obediently said “yes” in the house of Nazareth,
you allowed God’s eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb
and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption.
You willingly and generously cooperated in that work,
allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul,
until the supreme hour of the Cross, when you kept watch on Calvary,
standing beside your Son, who died that we might live.
From that moment, you became, in a new way,
the Mother of all those who receive your Son Jesus in faith
and choose to follow in his footsteps by taking up his Cross.
Mother of hope, in the darkness of Holy Saturday you journeyed
with unfailing trust towards the dawn of Easter.
Grant that your children may discern at all times,
even those that are darkest, the signs of God’s loving presence.
Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China,
who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love.
May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world,
and of the world to Jesus.
In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high,
offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love.
Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love,
ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built.
Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever. Amen!
Mother, Help of Christians, pray for us, pray for the Church in China, and especially for those who are in most need!
ORIGINAL PHOTO SOURCE: http://forosdelavirgen.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Detalle_de_la_imagen_de_Mar%C3%ADa_Auxiliadora_Bas%C3%ADlica_de_San_Carlos_Borromeo_y_Mar%C3%ADa_Auxiliadora-Argentina.jpg
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