My Thoughts 24/05/2022

Today is the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians.

When I was 11 years old I was given a book entitled “The Companion of Youth.” I still have it on my bookshelf and look at it occasionally. The first edition of Il giovane provveduto (in English appeared in 1847) and was written by St John Bosco. My edition was edited and adapted from the original.

It was here that I first came across the title, Our Lady, Help Of Christians. In 1571 the Turks were threatening to invade and defeat Christianity Europe. After their defeat at the battle of Lepanto the Pope ordered that in invocation Help of Christian should be added to the Litany of Our Lady. When Vienna was delivered from a siege by the Turks in 1683 a sodality in honour of Mary Help of Christians was formed in thanksgiving to her. Pope Pius VII upon being freed from imprisonment by Napoleon in 18 fixed the feast for today 24th May.

St. John Bosco had a dream in 1862 during which he perceived that two pillars in the storm-tossed sea would anchor the boat of Peter (the Church). The tallest, strongest pillar was the Eucharist and the second was the Blessed Virgin Mary. Don Bosco taught that tranquillity would not return to the stormy seas until the pope succeeded in anchoring the Church between the pillars of Eucharistic devotion and devotion to Mary. Don Bosco described this dream many times to his students, and in a letter dated February 13, 1863 he wrote to Pope Pius IX about the dream. The pillar surmounted with the host had the inscription, “The Salvation of Believers.” The smaller pillar had a statue of Mary at the top of its column and the inscription, “Help of Christians.”

Here is a prayer written by him

Most Holy Virgin Mary,
Help of Christians,
how sweet it is to come to your feet
imploring your perpetual help.
If earthly mothers cease not
to remember their children,
how can you,
the most loving of all mothers, forget me?
Grant then to me, I implore you,
your perpetual help in all my necessities,
in every sorrow and especially in all my temptations.
I ask for your unceasing help
for all who are now suffering.
Help the weak,
cure the sick,
convert sinners.
Grant through your intercession,
many vocations to the religious life.
Obtain for us, O Mary, Help of Christians,
that having invoked you on earth
we may love and eternally thank you in heaven.
Amen