A few days before the feast of Mary Help of Christians, May 24, St. John Bosco invited his students to benefit from the strength and affection with which the Blessed Virgin Mary helps each of her children. Here are the touching words of the Saint, as reproduced in his biographical memoirs.
Editor (05/24/2024 08:39, Gaudium Press) I recommend, with all my soul and with all my being, that each of you pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary in this novena. This compassionate Mother easily grants us the graces we need, especially the spiritual ones. She is most powerful in Heaven, and any grace asked by her of her Divine Son is immediately granted to her.
The Church demonstrates the power and kindness of Mary in the hymn “if you seek the gates of Heaven, invoke the name of Mary.” If to enter Paradise it is enough to invoke the name of Mary, it must indeed be said that She is powerful.
Her name is represented as the gate of Heaven, and all who wish to enter must turn to Mary.
Always Invoke Mary Help of Christians
Let us turn to her, especially to help us at the hour of death. Indeed, the Church tells us that Mary alone is as terrible as an army set in battle array, fighting against the enemies of our soul.
The mere name of Mary puts demons to flight. Therefore, She is called Auxilium Christianorum – Help of Christians, against both external and internal enemies.
We must trust ourselves to Her, which is why I recommend as much as I know and can, wishing that my advice be engraved in your mind and heart, that you always invoke the name of Mary, especially with this ejaculation: Mary Help of Christians, pray for us.
It is a brief and provenly very effective prayer. I have advised it to many people, and almost all of them told me they obtained good results. Some others assured me that they developed the habit of praying it themselves.
We all have miseries and need help. So, when you want to obtain some spiritual grace, take the habit of reciting this ejaculation.
By “spiritual grace,” we can understand being freed from temptations, spiritual afflictions, lack of fervor, the shame in Confession that makes the accusation of sins too burdensome.
If any of you want to dispel a stubborn temptation, overcome a passion, escape many dangers of this life, or gain some great virtue, invoke Mary Help of Christians. These and other spiritual graces are the ones we obtain most and do the most good for souls.
Prayer Must Be Done with Perseverance and Faith
I have advised hundreds, thousands – from the Oratory and outside – to say the ejaculation Mary Help of Christians, pray for us! and recommended that if they were not answered, they should come and tell me.
And until now, no one has come to tell me they did not obtain the grace. I am mistaken and need to correct my error: there was someone, as happened today, who came to complain to me about not being answered.
But do you know why? I questioned him, and he finally confessed that he had intended to invoke Mary but did not do so. In this case, it is not the Virgin Mary who fails, but us, by failing to pray to Her.
It is not Mary who does not answer us, but we who do not want to be answered. Prayer must be made with insistence, perseverance, faith, and a true desire to be answered.
A Letter to St. Bernard…
I want all of you to try this experience and lead your relatives and friends to do the same. Tell them on my behalf:
“Don Bosco guarantees that if you want to obtain some spiritual grace, you will be answered if you pray to Our Lady with this ejaculation: Mary Help of Christians, pray for us. Of course, it must be prayed with the conditions that all prayer must have. Anyone not answered, give Don Bosco the pleasure of writing to him about it.”
If I learn that any of you prayed well but in vain, I will soon write a letter to St. Bernard, informing him that he was wrong in stating: “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided…”
However, you can be sure that it does not occur to me to write a letter to St. Bernard. And if it did occur to me, the Holy Doctor would soon find some flaw in the prayer of the supplicant.
I see you laugh at this hypothetical sending a letter to St. Bernard. Well, don’t we know where St. Bernard is? Isn’t he in Heaven?
Certainly, to reach St. Bernard’s residence, the postal van would have to run at high speed for an unknown length of time.
The telegraph would not solve the problem either, as, although the electric current covers an enormous distance in an instant, the wires to reach there are lacking.
However, to write to the Saints, we have a faster resource than vehicles, trains, telegraphs. So do not fear that they will not receive our letters immediately, even when the courier is delayed.
In fact, right now, while I speak to you, I fly through celestial space with my thought faster than lightning, rise above the stars, traverse immeasurable distances, and reach the palace of St. Bernard, one of the greatest Saints of Paradise.
Therefore, try the experience I proposed, and if you are not answered, it will not be difficult to send a letter to St. Bernard.
The Devil Will Have No More Power Over You
Jokes aside, I want to insist that you engrave these words in your heart: Mary Help of Christians, pray for me – Mary, Help of Christians, pray for me; that you always pray it in all dangers, in all temptations, in all needs; and that you ask Mary Help of Christians for the grace to be able to invoke Her. And I promise you that the devil will go bankrupt.
Do you know what this means? It means that the devil will have no more power over you, will not be able to lead you to commit any sin, and will be forced to retreat.
For my part, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in other exercises of piety, I will recommend you all to the Lord so that He may help you, bless you, protect you, and grant you His graces through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Text extracted, with adaptations, from the Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, May 2019, no. 209.
