Why Pray to Our Lady?

The most basic group or society of all is the family. The family is made up of father, mother and children. Family life, at its best, includes the presence of both parents. Something is lacking if either Mom or Dad is not present in a truly loving manner.

Now the Church can be described as a family. St. Paul never tires of calling the early Christians "brothers". The frequency with which he uses this term expresses the family spirit that ought to penetrate the life of the Church. Here we will quote but a few instances: "I do appeal to you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to make up the differences between you, and instead of disagreeing among yourselves, to be united again in your belief and practice" (I Cor 1,10). In another place this Apostle speaks of "our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the Church at Cenchreae" (Rom 16,1), and later sends "greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon,... and all the brothers who are with them" (Rm 16,14). It is very clear that the life of the Church is a family life and that God is the Father of this family. St. Paul starts all thirteen of his letters by mentioning God the Father and nearly always refers to Him as "God our Father". Here it will suffice to show how he greets the Christians of Rome: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 1,7).

God is our Father, we are the members of His family. It is for this reason that Our Lord taught us to pray "Our Father, who art in heaven". It is precisely because we have one Father that we are one family of brothers and sisters. We should now ask ourselves: is it possible that God has left this family without Mother? St. Paul tells us that we are "members of the household of God" (Eph 2,19). Is it reasonable to think of a household without a mother? Did Jesus leave us without a mother and still desire that we live as a family?

As He was dying on the Cross He bequeathed to us a gift beyond all proportions. He looked at His beloved disciple and said: "Behold, your mother" (Jn 19,17). To whom was Jesus speaking? Clearly, He first meant to address St. John. But what about yourself and myself, are we not disciples of Jesus, are we not also His beloved disciples? Without any doubt these words were meant for all followers of Christ. Mary is therefore the Mother of Christians.

This is also evident from the Book of Revelation when it speaks of the dragon being enraged with the woman and going off to "make war on the rest of her children, that is, all who obey God's commandments and bear witness for Jesus" (Rev 12,17). All those who bear witness to Christ are children of the woman, of Our Blessed Lady.

There is another, and maybe even easier, way of seeing that the Blessed Virgin is Our Mother. In many passages St. Paul tells us that the Church is the Body of Christ. In a very straightforward manner he told the Corinthians: "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (I Cor 12,27). When, therefore, we want to understand the Church we best do so by comparing it to a body. Each body has a head and many other parts: joints, bones, legs, arms, etc. These are the various members of the human body. St. Paul tells us that we are the members of Christ's Body, and "He is the head of the body, the Church" (Col 1,18). We, with Christ as our Head and Leader, form one single "Mystical Body". We truly share in the life and privileges of Jesus. Implicit is that we have Mary, His Mother, as our Mother. If she is the Mother of the Head of the Body, she must also be Mother of the members of the Body.

In other words: It is impossible to conceive of Mary as being Mother of the Head of the Body without her also being Mother of the rest of the body. Our Lady is therefore not only Mother of Jesus, she is also our Spiritual Mother. The spiritual life that we enjoy as members of the Church comes to us through Mary.

Our Lady is interested in our everyday life. It was she who noticed that the wedding guests had run out of wine. She sought the help of her All-powerful Son, and the water was changed into wine. Can we possibly think of Mary as a distant, harsh, disinterested Mother? No. She is the most loving of all mothers. She is constantly thinking about us. She is constantly preoccupied with our happiness. We all strive to be happy. We are often convinced that nobody is as interested in our happiness as we ourselves are. This is a grave error. Firstly, we should remember that God loves us more that we love ourselves. Next to God comes Our Lady. She shares in God's love for us, and therefore deeply desires our true happiness.

As you read this letter you can be sure that you are loved, not only by God, but also by God's Mother and yours. Because of this love which Mary has for each one of us we should not be afraid to talk about friendship with Her. Our Lady is our friend. If this is true we should take time to talk to her. Without any doubt each of us has already received many graces through the intercession of the Mother of Jesus. Why not start our conversation by thinking back on these graces and thanking her? Why not also thank her for all the people who have prayed to her for us? We really do depend on the prayers of others.

Our Lady loves us. She deserves to be loved by us. Do we really desire to grow in our love for our Mother? Our hearts should be aflame with love for the Blessed Virgin. In our conversations with her we ought to tell her the truth: we love her, but not half enough. Tell her you want to love her more and more each day. Ask St. Joseph, and more especially Jesus Himself, to give you a share in their love for Mary. Should we not imitate Jesus? Should we not follow His example? To be a true follower of Jesus we should imitate Him and imitate His love for Our Lady. By loving Our Lady we love someone whom Jesus loves deeply. By loving Mary we honor God who made her so lovable.

In third place, our friendship with Our Lady should lead us to seek her help. In our struggle to lead truly Christian lives we all encounter difficulties. But maybe the greatest difficulty of all is our tendency not to pray. If we would only confide more in God and in the help that He desires to give through Our Lady many of our difficulties would be resolved. Through confident prayer we receive all that we need to live deeply Christian lives. Let us have recourse to Our Lady in all our difficulties, and let us remember that her one desire is the fulfillment of God's Will in our lives.

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection,
implored your help or sought your intercession, was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, My Mother.
To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but, in your mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.