Tuesday 2 August 2016

A Simple Method of Marian Prayer


The Method

  • First, obtain some Rosary beads.
  • Begin by praying + In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 
  • On the first bead pray-
Dear and Most Blessed Lady Mary
As you brought Jesus to St Elizabeth when you visited her bring Him also to me.
As, by the Father's will, she was filled with the Holy Spirit at the sound of your voice send the Paraclete also to me.
That, strengthened by the Blessed Trinity and accompanied by you, I may bear my cross in life, through death to the Glorious Resurrection
In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

  • On the next beads pray the Our Father the Hail Mary the Glory Be and Hail Holy Queen (these prayers can be found at CatholiCity.Com)
  • On the small beads pray Immaculate Heart of Mary, I trust in you.
  • After ten such prayers (a decade) on the large beads pray And after this our exile show unto us the Blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
  • Once you have prayed five decades you can either keep going for as long as seems right or finish with the following prayers-
  • Hail Holy Queen
  • Our Lady, the Mystical Rose, pray for us
  • Our Lady, Refuge of sinners, pray for us.
  • Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.
  • Glory Be.


The Rationale

I've written a lot about the benefit of going to Jesus through Mary. Rather than repeat myself here I invite you to check out my posts which are tagged with Blessed Virgin Mary especially, perhaps, With Mary to Jesus.

Practical Tips

  • While praying you may find it helps your focus if you look at an image of our Lord and our Lady or at a Crucifix.
  • As a symbolic way of uniting your offering with Catholics across history and around the world you could pray the second Hail Holy Queen in Latin as the Salve Regina.
  • To slow the prayer down and make it more contemplative you could link it with your breathing. Pray the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the indrawn breath and I trust in you on the outgoing one. Do remember to breathe normally when you get to the And after this etc. part though.
  • If you are accustomed to meditating on a mystery while using the Rosary beads because this prayer is shorter than the normal Rosary I suggest that you consider just one mystery for every five decades. You can find subjects from the opening prayer, not just the Visitation but also the mysteries of the Trinity and your personal relationship with each member of it, dying to self and so on.


Reflection

The central terms of this prayer are the Immaculate Heart and our trust in it. What does this mean? We know from Scripture that our Lady pondered the things of God in her heart. It is possible then to deduce the qualities of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as being love, for the Blessed Trinity as God, for the Incarnate Son as her own child Jesus and for all of her neighbours as being beloved by her beloved. Mary's heart is also reflective and contemplative. It is sinless and filled with prayer. By expressing our trust in it we are saying that our own hearts, timid, uncertain and sinful as they are, long by being united to Mary to become like her; above all in devotion to Jesus who is our salvation. Mary is Mediatrix of Grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit flow through her hands, through our prayer of trust in her Immaculate Heart we express the hope that the grace of conversion may come to us so that our own hearts will increasingly resemble hers so that she will be able to present us to Jesus as beloved children and not as sinful, self-willed rebels.

The Marian prayer par excellence is of course the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has been highly praised by Popes and Saints. Our Lady herself has encouraged it in her appearances to visionaries around the world. I do not offer this prayer in any sense as a rival to it. For those who already pray the Rosary this can be an addition to their prayer armoury. For those who do not yet pray it for one reason or another it can help them express their devotion to our Blessed Mother and may perhaps lead them in time to the Rosary itself. All I can say for certain is that I myself have found it useful in helping me to grow in love towards Jesus and Mary and hopefully also in uniting my will the the sweet will of Mary which is always united to that of her Divine Son Jesus.
@stevhep

This post is a companion piece to my earlier blog A Simple Method of Contemplative Prayer

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The painting is Immaculate Heart of Mary by Smith Catholic Art




3 comments:

  1. I wouldn't necessarily say it is going to Christ through Mary but rather interacting with Mary as one of the saints we are in Communion with. Specifically, as the mother of the Church.

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    Replies
    1. Relationships always operate at multiple levels. Mary is an icon or mirror of Jesus so when we relate to her at one level it is her own unique personal spiritual beauty to which we are responding and at another we are led through her to contemplate and love the glory of Christ her Son.

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    2. Yes. I would say it is like that with all saints. Not just Mary. Mary is unique in that she issued forth God from her womb but is not unique in the presentation of God to the world or how God is seen through others. Each saint has unique spiritual beauty to them.

      Actually, Mary, as the Mother and icon of the Church, says with all saints the Magnificat. The Magnificat is a prayer of the Church as a whole as much as an individual prayer of Mary's. When we refuse to call Mary blessed amongst women, we refuse to call the seed of Abraham blessed.

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