Collect taken from the memorial of Dedication of St. Mary Major, priest.
Collect: Pardon the faults of your servants, we pray, O Lord, that we, who cannot please you by our own deeds, may be saved through the intercession of the Mother of your Son and our Lord. Who lives and reigns…
“Pardon the faults of your servants, we pray, O Lord,”
-A straightforward request for mercy that will end with an invocation of Mary’s intercession.
“that we, who cannot please you by our own deeds, may be saved through the intercession of the Mother of your Son and our Lord.”
-We can do nothing without the grace of God, bu God is pleased to accomplish good through us. In turn, God is pleased to bestow that grace upon through another of his servants, our Blessed Mother. Thus, we ask to benefit from this generous economy of God’s grace that flows from him, through Christ, through His servant Mary to us His servants, and, through good works and holiness, back to Him.
Special: today’s memorial actually celebrates the dedication of a Church Building, the Basilica dedicated to the honor of Mary. The building is a sign of the whole Church and the dedication to Mary draws on the fact that Mary is “the symbol and the most perfect realization of the Church” (CCC 507).
Questions & Advice: Do you really believe that you can do nothing without God? How seriously do you take the intercession of the saints and especially of Mary? How important to you are the structures and buildings that make the Church present to us?
Read about drawing souls to Christ through our witness in the Catechism (2044-51). In your daily prayer, take a few minutes of silence – ask God to help you sort the difference between his particular call for your holiness and your own false ideas of holiness. Ask him to increase your desire to win souls and pray in a particular way for your local priest to grow in that desire as well.
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| Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis! |