PRAYERS BY ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI Prayer to the Mother of Mercy O Mother of holy love, our life, our refuge, and our hope, thou well knowest that thy Son Jesus Christ, not content with being Himself our perpetual advocate with the Eternal Father, has willed that thou also shouldst interest thyself with Him, in order to obtain the Divine Mercies for us. He has decreed that thy prayers should aid our salvation, and has made them so efficacious that they obtain all that they ask. To thee therefore, who art the hope of the miserable, do I, a wretched sinner, turn my eyes. I trust, O Lady, that in the first place through the merits of Jesus Christ, and then through thine intercession, I shall be saved. Of this I am certain; and my confidence in thee is such that if my eternal salvation were in my own hands I should place it in thine, for I rely more on thy mercy and protection than on all my own works. My Mother and my hope, abandon me not, though I deserve that thou shouldst do so. See my miseries, and, being moved thereby with compassion, help and save me. I own that I have too often closed my heart, by my sins, against the lights and helps that thou hast procured for me from the Lord. But thy compassion for the miserable, and thy power with God, far surpass the number and malice of my sins. It is well known to all, both in Heaven and on earth, that whosoever is protected by thee is certainly saved. All may forget me, provided only that thou dost remember me, O Mother of an omnipotent God. Tell Him that I am thy servant; say only that thou defendest me, and I shall be saved. O Mary, I trust in thee; in this hope I live; in it I desire and hope to die, repeating always, "Jesus is my only hope, and after Jesus the most blessed Virgin Mary." |