Our Lady, Help of Christians
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24 May 1986
Berlin, Germany

My dear Sisters,

In a few hours Father Paul and myself must leave you. Within this Eucharist, which is our great thanksgiving sacrifice, I wish to thank you all for the kindness you have shown both of us during these days when we had the happiness of being with you.

In some parts of the world today Mary, the Mother of God, is being honored under her title of Help of Christians. The Catholics of Australia have chosen Mary, Help of Christians, as Patron of their country, and St. John Bosco in his lifetime wished that all members of his Communities would honor Mary under this title of Help of Christians.

Mary has been Help of Christians ever since that afternoon when, before He died, Jesus asked John to take her as his mother. Can you think of any worthy mother who does not want to help her child? After Good Friday the only glimpse of Mary on earth that we are given is when she is together with the Apostles, awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit. St. Luke remarks that the Apostles were united in prayer. We must conclude, then, that one of the first ways Mary helped Christians was with their prayers. That should not surprise us, for is it not the desire of any good Christian mother to want to teach her child to pray? Mary, Help of Christians, has gone on helping her children to pray down through the centuries. We do not think of Mary as present to us in the same way as is the Spirit of God Who, as St. Paul assures us, assists us in the formulation of our prayers. (cf. Rom 8:26). When the Christian thinks of Mary and prayer, he or she will think of the power of her intercession. She helps Christians by lending her own voice to our feeble cries to God for help.

Intercession should not be the only melody in our repertoire of prayer. In the first reading of today's Mass you will notice how St. James encourages us to pray when we are suffering hardship. He also reminds us that praise and thanksgiving should find a place in our prayer. "Is anyone among you cheerful? Let him sing praise." (Jas 5:13). There is the prayer, too, of our work, of our power of influencing people to turn to God and away from sin. "If anyone among you wanders from the truth," remarks St. James, "and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way, will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." (Ibid., vv. 19-20). There is the prayer, too, of blessing, which is prominent in today's Gospel. "Jesus blessed the children, placing His hands on them". (Mt 11:25). Blessing is not simply a question of raising hands and pronouncing a formula. Before blessing them, Jesus asked that the little children come to Him. He first received them and then He blessed them. The prayer of blessing is an acceptance of people because they are children of our Father Who is in heaven. We cannot call down God's blessing on people without first accepting them as Jesus did. We must make room for people in the homes of our hearts before we can call down upon them the kindness and the goodness of God. That acceptance is more difficult than perhaps we imagine. It is easy to pronounce a blessing with our lips. It can be more difficult to pronounce it from our hearts, showing people that we accept, value, respect and love them, even when they are different from us in a hundred ways.

A good mother is capable of loving each of her children. A good mother can accept all her children, even when in character and temperament each is different. It is so with Our Lady. It is because her children are so different that she has been given so many titles by them. All her children see her as Mother of God and Mother of us all, but because a Catholic in particular thinks of Mary as Mother in a special way, she is addressed by an immense variety of titles. Mary, Help of Christians, Mary conceived without sin, Mary, the only Mother of the Company, are but three in a long litany of titles with which the children of God address their Mother.

May Mary, the Help of Christians, continue, dear Sisters, to be close to you as you try each day to resemble more and more the likeness of her Son. May she be continually at your side, helping you as you lovingly serve the weaker and more needy members of God's family. In the words of St. Louise: "Let us implore Mary to help us to render to God the service we have promised Him and to be as submissive as she was in accomplishing His holy Will." (Spiritual Writings of Louise de Marillac, M. 33, pp. 785-86).

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