“Mary, My Mother, Help Me Love My God; Help Me to Fight for Him and for Souls!”

by Rev. Fr. Eugen Rissling
Translated from the original German by a Marian Sister

(Fall, 2015)

Being Able to Invoke Mary as Our Mother in All Our Needs is a Great Blessing for Us

(The following article pertains to a German prayer that may or may not be familiar to English-speaking Catholics; nevertheless, these reflec­tions can be applied to a vast number of Marian prayers which help promote a more intimate conver­sation with our Heavenly Mother.)

We all know the ancient and beauti­ful popular prayer to the Mother of God which begins with the phrase, “Virgin Mother of God and mine, let me be entirely thine.” Perhaps it enjoys a great popularity among the faithful for the very reason that in our various needs we can pray to the Mother of God, who in turn will intercede for us with her Son.

Upon delving into other prayers, one comes across a noteworthy verse which is worthwhile to reflect upon more deeply and to ponder with greater intensity: “O Mother, come, help me pray! O Mother, come help me fight! O Mother, come help me suffer! O Mother, come and stay with me!” When the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and brought her the tidings that she had been chosen by God to give life to the Messias and thus become His Mother, she asked, “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” (Luke, 1:34). These words of Our Lady were a clear indication to the Fathers of the Church that in her early years she had made a vow of virginity. And this, in turn, shows us she had already possessed an intense prayer life at the tender age of 14.

Union With Mary Helps Us Love God, Remain Faithful to Him, and Fulfill Our Vocation in Life

Judaism, as a whole, has never known — neither at the time of Christ nor before His birth — of vows of virginity among its girls or women, nor even among its men. Cloisters whose residents observe chastity for the love of God were entirely foreign to it. On the contrary, marriage and the possibility of numerous descendants were common. The people considered the unmarried and the child­less as cursed by God. For this reason, strictly religious Jewesses sought nothing outside of marriage and children. When, with this historical/religious background, Mary nevertheless professes a vow of vir­ginity, we see that the intensity of her faith was especially strong, with her devotion to the Providence of God just as equally intense. The answer of Gabriel to Mary’s question cited above confirms the Church’s acceptance of her noble virginal state and her own willingness to set it aside only on the grounds of her great love of God: “And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke, 1:35). This conversation between St. Gabriel and Mary would never have taken place had not Mary made known her inten­tion to remain unwed.

Thus can we turn to her in prayer: “O Mother, come, help me pray!” Help me to be faithful and fulfill my vocation to love my God sincerely and selflessly, just as you yourself devotedly loved Him. The call of God bade you to consecrate your whole life to Him in a state of chastity and abstinence, contrary to the expectation of your family and your people, with which you were familiar. Help me, likewise, to raise my heart and soul to Him, that I also may experience the spiritual and deeply blissful beauty of God’s love, which by far compensates me for every­thing else that life’s circumstances may require me to sacrifice for His sake. Help me to place my trust entirely in Him and in His Providence, that I too, may have the privilege of knowing myself to be safe in God, despite everything else, and be able to meet all the adversities of life with a positive hope and a faith strong enough to move mountains.

O Mother, come and help me to love my God wholly, and without any kind of human respect for personal reservations, that I may learn the happiness of a God-loving soul, to be delighted by the bright­ness of His glory and the moral perfection of my soul. Help me to make at least a small, but steady, progress in this direction, even though my human weakness and frail attempts discourage me and threaten to pull me in the opposite direc­tion. Strengthen me on the right path, and do not let me fall prey to the temptations of the underworld!

O Mother, come and help me to love my God wholly, and without any kind of human respect for personal reservations, that I may learn the happiness of a God-loving soul.

O Mother, you already loved God so much even while you were still young, without measure and so sincerely, that you were able to formulate the most beautiful and fin­est prayer that ever came forth in human speech: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior!” (Luke, 1:46). Help me to turn my inner gaze upon Him alone, that by this glance at God’s endless love, goodness and mercy, I, like you, will be more consumed by love for Him and in this spiritual pleasure of God’s presence, experi­ence the ultimate fulfillment of my human nature and existence. Then may I break forth in inner exultation, and be forced, by this love of God which exceeds all earthly measures to “sing His mercies in time and eternity.” (Psalm 88:2). Yes, Mother, your prayer, your love and devotion, were true and sincere. O Mother, come, help me to pray; to pray as you did, understanding and leading your life as an unbroken, intense prayer.

And how must your prayer life have increased in content, in love, and in intensity, since after the birth of the promised Messias and Savior, you lived with Him for three decades in deep union and close togeth­erness. Surely, you conversed about more than the weather and mundane daily cares. Rather, your soul profited from the most uplifting conversations with Him, your Son, about heaven and the divine perfections. Just as Jesus in His human nature, as a child and youth, grew “in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and man” (Luke, 2:52), so likewise, you spiritually grew and were increasingly enriched.

Following Mary and Staying Close to Her Leads Us to Jesus

When the twelve-year-old Jesus went on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem with Mary and St. Joseph, He remained there for three days, initially unnoticed by his parents. Finally, “they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions.” (Luke, 2:46). And how must you, O Mother, have felt, for you had many more such spiritual conversations with your Divine Son, and prayed so often together with Him. Your inner joy must have known no end, and your worship of God became all the more intensified and fulfilled.

O, how we should have liked to be there and eavesdropped on the Wisdom that came from the mouth of Christ. How we should have liked to be witnesses of your steadfast Faith and abundant prayer, with the opportunity to learn first-hand from you by a deeply inspiring example from your touching humility before God. O Mother, come, help me pray!

Close Union With Mary Enables Us to Fight Our Spiritual and Temporal Enemies

“O Mother, come help me fight!” Is this plea not strange, if not entirely odd? The term “fight” has a morally negative connota­tion, and contentions are clearly presented as a sin. Thus, St. Paul counts “contentions” or “fights” in a whole row of other weighty misdemeanors (i.e., “Fornication,” “Lust,” “Idola­try,” “Wrath,” “Quarrels,” “Dissensions,” etc.) unmistakably among the “works of the flesh.” He then, in fulfilling his pastoral duty, counteracts all possibility of human illusion or downplaying: “They who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God.” (Gal. 5:19-21).

How can we, then, ask Mary to help us fight, who in her relationship with Jesus has the noblest love of God of which ever a soul was capable? Between Jesus and His Blessed Mother exists the greatest union and harmony — born of that deep mutual trust and purest love between Them, which is not only one of the noblest achievements in the interpersonal moral realm, but actu­ally forms the culmination of the mutual relationship between man and God. In con­trast with all other people, not the slightest shadow of sin stands between Them. How can it be, then, that we come to Mary with this plea?

Granted, normally or customarily when we use the term fight or contend we auto­matically think in these practical terms. For example, we think of hate, anger, resent­ment or jealousy, brought about more or less by our relationship with other people. In this case we are talking about a “fight” whose roots indicate defects on one’s own side, whether one initially gives rise to such a contention, or after another initiates the provocation. In both cases, the evil initiates in one’s own heart.

We cannot forget, however, that there are indeed serious differences that exist among men; that is, so-called “fights” can occur even as a consequence of holding fast to truth and justice, whether because of human good­ness or stubbornness. Here man fulfills, plain and simple, the will and command­ments of God — he is moral to the highest degree — and because of this fidelity to God or because he displayed in some way his love of God or neighbor, he is attacked by others who are less moral. In such a situation, because of the moral weak­ness of human nature, he stands in need of the assistance wrought by prayer, in order to keep from straying from the right path. And in this sense, and only in this sense, is the plea “O Mother, come, help me fight” to be understood.

We ourselves know very well how easily and quickly we can stray from a good intention, perhaps even after many years of effort and inner struggle com­bined. Has not many a temptation weakened us and torpedoed our efforts at perseverance? Truly, this is our daily experience.

So we have reason enough to pray the following: “O Mother, come and help me to set aside the human strife resulting from perverse and sinful self-love, and give me the attitude of a peacemaker and reconciler of men. Save me, to the extent that I always give in to temptations of hatred, resentment, personal arrogance, or even of envy, from which spiritually emanates an unhealthy radiation, thereby becoming a source of evil in the world.

Mary Assists Us in the Fight for Truth and Justice

Please help me likewise, really to love the truth, so that I may stand courageously for justice, even when it costs me no little per­sonal sacrifice, and on that account exposes me to even serious hostility on the part of other men or of society.” Human nature has the tendency to shy away from it, and to adapt itself to the majority opinion. In prin­ciple, it always costs us much strength and conflict to oppose any generally accepted majority opinion and to go against the cur­rent — we do it reluctantly.

But it is very necessary and crucial for the spiritual well-being of any society, that there are men who place good things and the consequent effort to obtain them before their own personal comfort and conve­nience, and in this way encourage others to follow suit. Men who have no fear, who continually oppose injustice, will offend others and receive a “thrashing” in their “Fight for Truth!”

In our times, tolerance is a word used often and propagated in our society and in the media, so that one can see the failure or unwillingness to investigate the true facts and bravely defend what is right and true. “Tolerance” of this kind advances indif­ference and inaction. This unwillingness to duly protect what is right and true, and to bravely advocate it without false ideas, reveals the absence of a positive conviction, through which this respective idleness or inaction leaves the field open to the wrong forces, and even strengthens them!

And often there is hiding behind the “sometimes-even-pious” facade of these advo­cates of compromise nothing other than personal convenience and indifference, or a great lack of the love of God, which is why this mentality is so common today. But Jesus expressly asks of His followers a consistent selfless commitment to truth and justice: “I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke, 12:49). It is necessary that we “pay the price” of contradiction, murmurings, and perhaps even persecution for God, justice and truth. In this context, how repugnant are half-heartedness, lukewarmness, and timidity.

O Mother, as you uttered your Fiat — “Be it done unto me according to Thy word” (Luke 1:38) — you agreed to accept all the sacrifices and crosses that were associated with the maternity of the suffering Savior. Even the aged Simeon prophesied at the presentation of Jesus in the temple, that “thy own soul a sword shall pierce” (Luke 2, 35). Sacred Scripture does not relate any disputes between you and the enemies of Jesus. Your mission was not to suffer a physical martyrdom. But your difficult struggle and braver fight is to be seen in that you faithfully accompanied Christ on His Via Dolorosa; precisely in that “sword” of the terrible spiritual suffering as God’s Mother, which painfully pierced your soul, yet which you accepted and endured without murmur or regret. In their fear, the Apostles aban­doned Jesus and fled. But you stayed with Him throughout His Passion, thus becoming subject to the mockery and blasphemies of His enemies.

Mary Will Obtain for Us the Courage We Need at the Right Time

O Mother, come and teach me; kindle and set ablaze within me this fire of zeal for the good things of Christ and His Church, without letting human fear drive away my courage at the most cru­cial moments. Do not permit me, for example, to accept the terrible heresy of modernism, nor in any way reconcile with the Conciliar Church; neither let me in such moments keep a treacherous silence and remain idle, when I recognize that it is necessary for me to say or do something — and only because I don’t want to offend someone and wish to “hold my peace.” Keep me from such rotten compromises, which undermine the imperative truth or relativize traditional Catholic doctrines, and which may cause unrest around me or my family, and perhaps even cause me to be treated as an outcast or force me into some kind of isolation. In such situations, help me to cast an inner, steady, and deeply consoling gaze at Jesus, Whose divine grace will enable a courageous confession of your love and truth.

O Mother, come and help me not to prefer my own convenience when, for example, a brother in the Faith breaks an important ecclesi­astical principle or approves of an impermissible cooperation with a heretical or schismatic group. For fear of possible negative consequences, one should never keep silence or refuse to show solidarity with another who has already received their share of “thrashings,” since one would, in a manner, be betraying Catholic Truth. Give us the courage, so to fight this spiritual struggle with Jesus, your Divine Son, as to give Him due honor as well as to the Catho­lic Church which He founded to protect and praise Him.

Help me as well to be an outspoken advocate for a mistreated brother, and not to remain silent in the face of the injustice suffered by him, because one prefers not to go out of the way to have any personal vexations. Because when all keep silent, should the right time come to react, then we only help injustice and lies gain the victory, and undermine righteousness, justice, and truth in society. O Mother, come and help me to be in this manner a messenger from Heaven, and even gladly to accept anything that may fol­low. For your Son did promise: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill…..Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:6, 10). Yes, Mother, come and help me to fight in this way for God, His Church, and justice among men.

Yes, sometimes, and often frequently, we hear the alluring voice of the tempter, which says: “Give in, don’t take it so seriously, a lesser effort will suffice, don’t try to break through the mediocrity of your surround­ings, let the people have their faith and their liberty, don’t warn, don’t point out abuse, don’t dig things up — then things will go better for you and you will have peace. Go this way, as many others do. Maybe it’s only pride speaking through you, maybe you just want to stand out and consider yourself better, to put yourself above others, because you are so involved. Keep quiet and be like everyone else.”

O Mother, come and help me to fight with the gift of being able to discern spirits, to find the voice of God in the flood of diabolical whispers, which sometimes seek to deceive us with pious prattle. Fill me with such a love for Jesus as to enable me, despite all odds, adversities and sacrifices, to an unmov­able confession of God’s love and justice, and thereby become a true apostle of Jesus Christ. Because only then will we truly love God, truth and justice, when we are prepared to bring a respective selfless dedication. “O Mother, come, help me fight!”

–Taken from the Reign of Mary Quarterly Magazine, Issue 159