Prayer to the Blessed Virgin to Obtain Her Love and That of Christ

Mary, great Mary, most blessed of all Marys, greatest among all women, great Lady, great beyond measure, I long to love you with all my heart, I want to praise you with my lips, I desire to venerate you in my understanding, I love to pray to you from my deepest being, I commit myself wholly to your protection

Heart of my soul, strive, as much as you can, if you have any power, all my inner powers, to praise her merits, to love her beatitude, admire her loftiness, to pray for the kindness of the one whose patronage you must seek every day: seeking it, you desire it; desiring it, you implore it; imploring it, you obtain it, and if it is not according to your desire, it is however beyond and even against your merit.

Queen of Angels, Lady of the world, mother of the One who purifies the world, I confess that my heart is so impure that it blushes to look on you, so pure, and that it cannot worthily succeed in daring to look upon you, so pure. You therefore, mother who illuminates my heart, you who nourishes the salvation of my spirit, my heart in its depths begs you as much as it can. Hear me, Lady, come and give me succor, help me, powerful one, to cleanse the defilements of my spirit, to illuminate my darkness, to ignite my tepidity, to awaken my torpor.

In this way, just as your blessed holiness was exalted above all after your Son who is superior to all, through your almighty Son, because of your glorious Son, through your blessed Son, so may my heart know you and venerate you above all after my Lord and my God and the God of all, your Son; my heart will love you and pray to you with affection, not through my imperfect desires, but that owed a man created, saved, and revived by your Son.

Surely Jesus, Son of God, and you, Mary His mother, both want, and it is equitable, that we love whatever you love. This is why, Son of goodness, I ask You by the love with which You love Your mother: as You truly love her and want her loved, so grant that I may love her truly. Kind mother, I ask you through the love with which you love your Son: as you truly love Him and want Him loved, to likewise obtain for me to truly love Him.

Here I am asking for something the realization of which really depends on Your will. Why, because of my sins, would it not happen when it is in Your power? You who love men and have pity on them, You were able to love the guilty until death, and could You refuse me, when I ask, Your love and that of Your mother? Mother of the One who loves us, you who have merited to carry Him in your womb and breastfeed Him, could you not or would you not grant, when I beg for it, His love and yours?

May my spirit therefore venerate you as you are worthy, may my heart love you as it is equitable, may my soul cherish you as much as it can, may my flesh serve you as it should, and may my life be consummated, so that for all eternity my whole being may sing: ‘Blessed be the Lord for ever. Amen.’