Prayer
July 25, 1993
Brother John Raymond
One essential aspect of a life of prayer is
one's relationship
with the Blessed Virgin Mary. Some non-Catholics, and even
Catholics, believe that they can pray straight to God and they do
not ever need to pray to anyone else. What these people fail to
understand is that it is God's Will that we come to Him through
His
Mother. He has given Her to us as a true Mother of our souls. Our
Blessed Mother works together with the Holy Spirit to form us
into
another Jesus. Unlike with other Saints, the Church tells us that
we
must have some relationship with our Blessed Mother. God has
given
Her the office of being the Spiritual Mother of all mankind. So
it
is essential to one's prayer life to turn to the Mother of God.
One can see the Spiritual Motherhood of Mary for Her children
shining out especially today with Her many reported apparitions
all
over the world. Mary is telling us what we are to do in order to
grow in our life of prayer and union with God.
All the saints had a special relationship with
the Mother of God.
She is a real Mother and we should get into the habit of turning
to
Her in our spiritual life. The late Bishop Fulton Sheen used to
quote a beautiful little poem which began: "Lovely Lady
dressed in
blue teach me how to pray, God was just Your little Child and You
know the way." Our Blessed Mother takes us by the hand as
Her own
child and guides us in the way of prayer. Of course the Marian
prayer most recommended by the Church and Mary Herself is the
Holy
Rosary.
Praying the Holy Rosary daily is one way of
staying close to Our
Heavenly Mother. It is interesting to note that we can even pray
for
the grace to pray better or to learn to pray better. Our Heavenly
Mother can obtain these special graces for us through Her
Motherly
intercession.
The Saints in Heaven can also be very helpful
to our life of
prayer. The Saints have a great desire to intercede for us - one
could say it is their pleasure to do so. Just as Mary has a
motherly
relationship with us so a particular Saint can really become our
close friend. The following true story is from the life of a
non-Catholic woman. This particular woman was travelling on a bus
in
Padua, Italy which made a stop at the Shrine of St. Anthony. The
woman told the bus driver to stop the bus and let her out. The
bus
driver asked her why because they were still far from the Shrine
which he knew she was going. The woman responded that she wanted
to
walk to the Shrine in thankgiving for all that St. Anthony had
done
for her. This woman never became a Catholic but one could see
that
she had a special relationship with St. Anthony of Padua. We are
all
unique and the particular saints that we feel a closeness to will
be
different. But we should realize that the saints we do develop a
close relationship with are certainly not by accident. God wishes
us
to have these special friends in Heaven to help us on our journey
here on earth.
Some of the Saints even prophesied before their
death about the
good they would do from Heaven for those on earth. St. Therese
the
Little Flower said she would spend her Heaven doing good upon the
earth and look at all the graces she has obtained for people
since
her death! Another Carmelite Nun, Blessed Elizabeth of the
Trinity,
said that she would spend her Heaven helping souls on earth to
become recollected, which means quiet and still and aware of
God's
presence. So it is a great benefit to us to turn to these
Heavenly
friends who want to help us grow closer to God. It is not wrong,
in
fact it is very pleasing to God, for us to ask for the
intercession
of these Heavenly friends for ourselves to grow in a life of
virtue
and prayer.
So let us realize that we are all part of God's
big family in
Heaven which is based on charity. Each member of this family
wants
to help the family members still struggling here on earth. Let us
especially turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary Who is the greatest
intercessor for us before the throne of God. As we pray in St.
Bernard's "Memorarie" - "never was it known that
any one who fled to
Her protection, implored Her help or sought Her intercession was
left unaided."