The name of Mary is my love, Mary: Day 027

The name of Mary is my love

St. Alphonsus wants to call on Mary’s name, not just with an expectation of assistance, but with great love.

Great Mother of God and my Mother, Mary, it’s true that I’m unwor- thy to speak your name. But despite the impurity of my tongue, you love me and desire my salvation. So grant that I may always invoke your most holy and pow- erful name for my aid, for your name is the help of the living, and the salvation of the dying.
Most pure Mary, most sweet Mary, grant that from now on your name may be the breath of my life. Lady, don’t delay to help me when I call upon you. For in all the temptations that assail me, and in all my needs, I’ll never cease calling upon you, and repeating again and again, Mary, Mary.

In this way I hope to act during my life, and more especially at death, so that after that last struggle I may eternally praise your beloved name in heaven—O clement, O pious, O sweet Virgin Mary! Mary, most amiable Mary, with what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what tenderness, is my soul pen- etrated simply by calling your name and thinking of you! I thank my Lord and God, who for my good has given you a name so sweet and deserving of love, and at the same time so powerful.

However, my sovereign Lady, I’m not satisfied with only calling your name. I wish to call your name with love. I desire that my love may every hour remind me to call on you, so that I may be able to exclaim with St. Bonaventure, “O name of the Mother of God, you are my love.”

My own dear Mary, O my beloved Jesus, may your most sweet names reign in my heart, and in all hearts. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Do I call on Mary’s name, not just with faith and hope, but also with love?
Does her name have for me consolation, sweetness, tenderness?

CLOSING PRAYER
From a prayer of St. Alphonsus: Jesus my Redeemer, and my Mother Mary, when the moment of death comes, when I must breathe forth my soul and leave this world, through your merits, grant that I may then pronounce my last words, and that they may be: “I love you, Jesus; I love you, Mary; to you I give my heart and my soul.”

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