A prayer to the Immaculate Virgin Mary by St Faustina

As we celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate Virgin Mary spontaneously comes into my heart and mind a very interesting prayer we find in St Faustina’s Diary, particularly in entry 1232.

The content of this prayer shows not only St Faustina’s love for Our Lady but also the Virgin Mary’s role in the life of our saint. Mary is described as sweet Mother of God. The adjective sweet reminds us of what we pray to Our Lady in the Salve Regina when we tell her the following salute: Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. Can it not be that her sweetness is she is our life, Mother of Mercy, our hope and our Holy Queen? Are not these adjectives connected with one another?

Mary is for St Faustina the bright dawn and divine ray. In another fascinating line of this most beautiful prayer St Faustina even tells Mary that in the midst of the storms she teaches her to love the Lord. Faustina also calls Mary shield and defense from the foe.

This beautiful prayer written by St Faustina on Mary, the Mother of God and Our Mother, makes me reflect about what we find written in Psalm 18: The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies (Ps 18:2-3). Through Mary, which the Mother of His Son and Our Brother Jesus, the Lord is our rock, fortress, deliverer, God, shield, horn of our salvation, stronghold. When we call the Lord through Mary we are yes saved from our enemies. As she said in the Magnificat: He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away (Luke 1:51-53).

Let us pray with St Faustina to Our Mother in Heaven with her beautiful prayer:

O sweet Mother of God,
I model my life on You;
You are for me the bright dawn;
In You I lose myself, enraptured.

O Mother, Immaculate Virgin,
In You the divine ray is reflected,
Midst storms, ’tis You who teach me to love the Lord,
O my shield and defense from the foe (Diary, 1232).

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap