First Saturday of the Month: Mary, Our Hope

Mary Most Holy is truly our Mother who accompanies us on our pilgrimage of faith, hope and charity towards an ever-more intense union with Christ, the one Savior and Mediator of salvation (cf. Constitution Lumen Gentium, nn. 60, 62).

In the antiphon Salve Regina, the Church calls the Mother of God “our Hope”. The same term is used by St. Louis Marie (de Montfort) who took it from a text of St. John Damascene, who applies to Mary the biblical symbol of the anchor (cf. Hom I in Dorm. B.V.M., 14: PG 96, 719):

“We fasten our souls,” he says, “to Your hope, as to an abiding anchor. It is to Her that the saints who have saved themselves have been the most attached and have done their best to attach others, in order to persevere in virtue. Happy, then, a thousand times happy, are the Christians who are now fastened faithfully and entirely to Her, as to a firm anchor!” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 175).

Through the devotion to Mary, Jesus Himself “enlarges the heart with firm confidence in God, making it look upon Him as a Father.” (ibid., n. 169).

~ Pope John Paul II

"You will surely have a future and your hope will not be cut off!"
~ Proverbs 23: 18

"I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth; in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come to me all that desire me and be filled with my fruits."

Mary is the Mother of our hope; to her we turn in prayer and praise!

Novena to Our Lady of Hope

Prayer to Our Lady of Hope

O Lady of Mental Peace, Mother of Tranquility and Mother of Hope, Look upon me in this time of my weakness and unrest.

Teach my searching heart to know that God's love for me is unchanging and unchangeable; and, that true human love can only begin and grow by touching His love.

Let your gentle peace which this world cannot give be always with me and help me bring this same peace into the lives of others.

Our Lady of Mental peace, pray for us. Amen.

~ From Prayers to Mary

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