EVENING SIGH - 27th Day

 

THE TOWER OF DAVID 

Translate Here

In the Sacred Canticles the Holy Spirit speaks of the Tower of David in these words, "It is built with bulwarks.  A thousand shields hang from its walls—the complete armour of the strong."  Mary is the Tower of David.  It is built with mighty strength;  its powerful defences are beyond number;  so are the arms and the supplies it affords to all who seek protection within.  

Most holy Mary, St. Ignatius the Martyr tells me that you are a "most powerful fortress for all those engaged in war"—a bastion of mighty strength for all those who are fighting in the battle.  I am facing the assaults of my enemies; their attacks never cease;  they are trying to wrest from me the grace of God and to deprive me of your protection, O My dearest Lady.  But you are my fortress.  You do not think it unworthy of you to come to the help of those who trust you in the combat.  St. Ephrem tells me that you are "she who battles for those who trust in her."  Do battle for me then and defend me for in you I put all my hope, all my trust.

Evening Sigh—Mary, Mary, your name is my defense.

Litany of Loreto 

Thirty Days Prayer 

My Mother's Rosary 

Mary's Little Office

EVENING SIGH - 26th Day

THE BRIDGE OF GOD 

Translate Here

Mary, my Mother most holy, St. Germanus calls you "The power that supports our weakness."  In you we will find the remedy for all our sickness; in you our weakness will find strength. 

St. Bonaventure calls you "The gate of Liberty"—In you we have the door through which we go forth from the slavery of sin.  He also calls you "The safe resting place of men"—so in you too we find peace and security.  St. Lawrence Justinian calls you "The comforter of our pilgrimage"—you bring relief to us in our sufferings.  St Bonaventure calls you "The Throne of the Grace of God:" so to sum up all, in you we find God's grace and God Himself.  St. Proclus tells us you are "The bridge by which God comes down to man"—our sins have separated us from God but happily for us, Mary is the bridge by which He passes when He comes to dwell in our souls by His grace.

Evening Sigh—Mary, you are my strength, my liberty, my peace;  and my salvation.

Litany of Loreto 

Thirty Days Prayer 

My Mother's Rosary 

Mary's Little Office

EVENING SIGH - 25th Day

THE HEAVENLY ARK

Translate Here 

The Ark in which Noe escaped the universal Deluge is a figure of Mary.  St. Bernardine calls her "The Ark in which we escape shipwreck."  She is the heavenly ark in which we find shelter while on earth and so escape the shipwreck of everlasting loss.  But Esecius says that Mary gives shelter which is superior to that of the Ark of Noe because it is more universal, has greater strength, and is more kindly.  With Noe only a few men and beasts found shelter:  Mary receives all who seek protection under her mantle and she saves them all.  How unhappy our lot would be if we had not Mary!  And yet, with all this many still are lost. Why is this?  O Mother, it is because they do not go to you:  nobody could be lost ever if he asked your help.

Evening Sigh—Most Holy Mary, may we all have recourse to you, and always!

Litany of Loreto 

Thirty Days Prayer 

My Mother's Rosary 

Mary's Little Office

EVENING SIGH - 24th Day

  

THE SEA OF GRACE  

 

My most gentle Lady, in the midst of the fears I sometimes experience about my eternal salvation, I feel a great sense of confidence when I appeal to you and when I think of you.  On the one hand, my Mother, you have a wealth of graces at your disposal—"A sea of graces" is what St. John Damascene calls you.  St. Ephram tells me you are 'The spring from which grace and consolation flow'." 

On the other hand, St. Bonaventure tells me that your eagerness to help me is so great that I cause you pain when I do not ask you for what I need. My Mother and my Queen, you are rich, you are wise, you are gentle;  I understand that you know my soul's wants better than I know them myself; you love me better than I love myself.  This is the grace I ask today—the grace you know my soul needs most.  I will be happy if you ask this grace from God for me.

Evening Sigh—My God, give me the graces which Mary asks of you for me.

Litany of Loreto 

Thirty Days Prayer 

My Mother's Rosary 

Mary's Little Office

EVENING SIGH - 23rd Day

  

THE MOTHER OF ORPHANS 

Translate Here

O Virgin most loving, you are named by St. Bonaventure "The Mother of Orphans."  St. Ephram proclaims you "The Receiver of Orphans," that is, the one who welcomes the orphan.  Who are these unhappy orphans?  They are non others than poor sinners who have lost God, their Father. Most holy Mother, I have lost my Father; you are my Mother.  I come to you and you will welcome me.  In my great misfortune I call on you for help and you will aid me.  Will you leave me in my grief?  No;  for this is what Innocent III says to me about you,  "Who has ever called on her and did not receive her kindly help?"  And indeed who ever prayed to you without being both heard and helped?  Was anybody ever lost after pleading with you?  The only one that is lost is the one that does not go to you.  My Queen, if you wish to save me, then help me to invoke you and to confide in you always.

Evening Sigh—O most holy Mary, give me confidence in you.

Litany of Loreto 

Thirty Days Prayer 

My Mother's Rosary 

Mary's Little Office

EVENING SIGH - 22nd Day

THE AGENT OF RECONCILIATION 

Translate Here

My Mother Mary, most sweet Lady, I have been an unhappy rebel for I have sinned against your great Son.  But now in repentance I seek your gentle mercy that you may obtain me pardon.  You cannot tell me that you are powerless to help me; I hear St. Bernard calling you "God's agent of reconciliation," and St. Ephrem "The support of those who are in peril."  My Lady, who is in greater peril than I?  This is certain—I have lost God and I have been condemned to lose Him for ever.  But I am uncertain as to whether He has yet pardoned me;  and if He has I am quite capable of losing Him again.  You can obtain everything from Him:  so from you I hope for every good—pardon, perseverance and paradise. This is my hope, dear Mary—that I will be one of those in the Kingdom of the Blessed who will praise your mercy most, for you will save me by your intercession.

Evening Sigh—I will sing the mercies of Mary forever; I will sing them forever.  Amen.

Litany of Loreto 

Thirty Days Prayer 

My Mother's Rosary 

Mary's Little Office

EVENING SIGH - 21st Day

OUR ADVOCATE

 

Translate Here

 

"The advocate of all the wicked who seek her help"—This is what the Blessed Virgin Mary was called by Dionisius, the Carthusian. 

O great Mother of God, it is your office to defend the cause of those who are most guilty, if they appeal for your help.  Look down on me, prostrate at your feet. To you I appeal.  I address you in the words of St. Thomas of Villanova, "You are our advocate;  then do your appointed work."  Fulfil your office by undertaking my defense.  I am guilty, it is true:  I have offended my God deeply;  and after He has been so good in bestowing His favors and graces on me.  But it will be enough if you tell Him that you are my protector.  Then will I be forgiven and I will be saved.  The wrong has been already done by me; but you can save me still.

Evening Sigh—My dear Mother, you must save me.

Litany of Loretto 

Thirty Days Prayer 

My Mother's Rosary 

Mary's Little Office

EVENING SIGH - 20th Day

ACCEPT ME AS YOUR SERVANT

Translate Here

 

My Queen, most sweet, most kind, most lovely, when I go to you for protection how beautiful is the confidence St. Bernard gives me!  For he tells me that you make no enquiry into the merits of those who appeal to your love, but you offer to help everybody that prays to you:  "Mary does not concern herself with our merits, but she helps everyone that appeals to her."  Always gentle and kind, you help me if I pray.  Then listen to what I am going to ask you for:  I am a poor sinner that has deserved to be lost a thousand times over; but I want to change my life—I want to love that God whom I have offended so grievously.  I consecrate myself to you as your servant;  poor and unworthy as I am I give myself to you.  And now I can plead with you—save what is your own. My Lady, you understand me;  I am confident that you do understand, and that you have kindly granted my request.

Evening Sigh—O Mary, I am yours, save me.

Litany of Loretto 

Thirty Days Prayer 

My Mother's Rosary 

Mary's Little Office

EVENING SIGH - 19th Day

TO KNOW YOU IS GOD'S GIFT 

Translate Here 

Thus speaks the devoted Bernardine de Bustis, "Do not be discouraged, poor sinner, for if you go to this Lady with trust you will find her;  and in her hands you will find the fullness of mercy and bounty."  Poor sinner, do not lose courage, whoever you are.  Go to this Lady with the certainty that you will be helped:  you will find her, and her hands will be filled with mercy and with favors.  Be quite certain that the longing of this gentle Queen to do you good is much greater than the wish you have to be helped by her.  "She wishes more to do you good than you wish to receive her gifts."  

To know you, my Lady—this itself is God's gift to me and I am very grateful to Him for it.  If I did not know you or if I forgot you, what a calamity it would be for me!  Then the chance of my salvation would be poor indeed.  But I do know you, my dear Mother.  I bless you, I love you and I have full confidence in you.  In your hands I place my whole life.    

Evening Sigh—Blessed is he who knows you, O Mary, and who trusts in you.

EVENING SIGH - 18th Day

MY REFUGE  

Translate Here

People who are poor can find shelter when they are sick, but only in the public hospitals, because all others forsake them on account of their poverty.  In the same way the most wretched of sinners are received by the Mercy of Mary, even when everybody else would abandon them on account of their miserable condition. 

Mary's mercy was given to the world by God to be for sinners, like the public hospital, a refuge for the abandoned and forsaken.  St. Basil tells us this:  "God has established a public hospital for sinners."  St. Ephrem tells us that Mary is a place of refuge where the sinner finds a welcome. 

Mary, my Queen, God had made you great so that you might give shelter to those whose condition is most wretched.  So you cannot cast me away when I come to you, even though I have committed so many sins.  The greater my misery is, the greater also is my right to be taken under your protection.  To you I come;  under your mantle I take shelter.  You are the refuge of sinners, so you are my refuge—the hope of my salvation.  If you cast me out where will I go?

Evening Sigh—Mary, my refuge, save me.

EVENING SIGH - 17th Day

MOTHER MOST LOVABLE 

Translate Here

My most sweet Queen, how pleasant to me is that beautiful name used by those who are devoted to you, "Mater Amabilis," Mother Most Lovable.  Yes, how true it is, O my Lady, that you are exceedingly lovable, for your beauty has won the love of God Himself:  "The King has greatly desired your loveliness." 

St. Bonaventure tells us that to your lovers even your name is so lovely, that when they pronounce it, or hear it pronounced, they are set on fire;  and an intense longing wells up within them to love you still more:  "O sweet, O kind, O most lovable Mary—your name cannot be pronounced without setting us aflame;  nor can it strike upon our hearing without stirring the affections of those who love you." 

O how fitting it is then, most lovely Mother, that I should love you.  But I shall not be satisfied with merely loving you:  I want to be, after God, the first of your lovers on earth;  and later on, the first of your lovers in Heaven.  If this desire is too bold your loveliness alone is responsible, together with the particular love that you have given me;  if you were less lovable then my longing to love you would be less. 

Come, O my Lady, and accept this intense desire of mine.  In proof that you have accepted it, you must yourself obtain for me from God the love I seek.  I seek to love you more because the love I have for you gives great joy to God Himself.  

Evening Sigh—I love you exceedingly, O most lovely Mother.

EVENING SIGH - 14th Day

CHANNEL OF DIVINE GRACE 

Translate Here

St. Germanus addresses the Most Blessed Virgin Mary in these words, "No one can be saved but through you;  no one can be freed from evil things but through you;  no one can receive gifts but through you."  My Lady, it is clear that if you do not help me I am lost, and I will never be able to come to Heaven to sing your praises.  But all the Saints tell me that you do not forsake those who seek your help.  He is lost, and he only, who does not call on you.  Poor as I am, I seek your help and in you I put all my trust. 

Evening Sigh—She is all my confidence, she is the total cause of my hope.  

EVENING SIGH - 13th Day

MOST GRACIOUS LADY 

Translate Here

St. Bernard urges us:  "Let us ask for grace and let us ask through Mary."  St. Peter Damian tells us she is "The Treasure Store of Divine Graces."  She is able to make us rich.  She wants us to be rich. So she earnestly presses us to accept her kind invitation, "If you are a little one, then come to me."  (Prov. 9).  O Lady Most Lovely, O Lady Most Sublime,  O Lady Most Kind, look down upon me a poor sinner who comes to you for support and puts all his confidence in you.  

Evening Sigh—We fly to you for protecton, O Holy Mother of God.

EVENING SIGH - 12th Day

 

THE REWARD OF FIDELITY 

Translate Here

      
"Those who work in me shall not sin."  (Eccl. 24).
Those who are employed in my worship, says Mary, will remain ever faithful:  "Those who make me known will have eternal life;"  and those who are employed in making me known and loved by others are destined for heaven.  Promise that when you can you will always speak, both in public and in private, of Mary's glories and of devotion to her.  

Evening Sigh—O Sacred Virgin, make me worthy to tell your praises.

EVENING SIGH - 11th Day

THE GATE OF MARY'S MERCY 

Translate Here

"Blessed is the man who keeps watch at my gates every day and who is watching at my door post
(Prov. 8).  As the poor wait at the doors of the rich, so blessed is the man who waits at the gate of Mary's mercy, seeking for alms which come in the form of graces;  but even more blessed still is the man who tries to imitate the virtues which he learns from Mary, particularly the virtues of purity and humility.

Evening Sigh—My Hope, help me.