Ave Maria Meditations
December 15th: Feast of Our Lady, Queen of the Seraphic Order
Saint Francis’ Greetings to the Blessed Virgin:
Hail, Lady and Queen, holy Mary, Mother of God,
Virgin who became the Church,
chosen by the Father in heaven,
consecrated by His beloved Son
and His Spirit, the Comforter:
in you was and remains,
the whole fullness of grace
and everything that is good.
Hail, His palace,
Hail, His tabernacle,
Hail, His dwelling,
Hail, His robe,
Hail, His handmaid,
Hail, His mother!
O holy Mother,
sweet and fair to see,
for us beseech the King,
your dearest Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
to death for us delivered:
that in His pitying clemency,
and by virtue of His most holy incarnation
and bitter death,
He may pardon our sins.
Holy Virgin Mary,
among all the women of the world,
there is none like you.
You are the daughter and handmaid of the most high King,
Father of heaven.
You are the Mother of our most holy Lord Jesus Christ.
You are the bride of the Holy Spirit.
Pray for us, with St. Michael the archangel,
and all the powers of heaven
and all the saints,
to your most holy and beloved Son, our Lord and Master, Amen.
Act of Consecration:
Padre Pio prayed this Act of Consecration on the first Saturday of every month.
O Mary, Virgin most powerful and Mother of mercy, Queen of heaven and Refuge of sinners, we consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart. We consecrate to you our very being and our whole life; all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. To you we give our bodies, our hearts and our souls; to you we give our homes, our families, our country. We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to you, and may share in the benefits of your motherly benediction.
And that this act of consecration may be truly efficacious and lasting, we renew this day at your feet the promises of our Baptism and our first Holy Communion. We pledge ourselves to profess courageously and at all times the truths, of our Holy Faith, and to live as Catholics who are duly submissive to all the directions of the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him. We pledge ourselves to keep the commandments of God and His Church, in particular to keep holy the Lord’s day. We likewise pledge ourselves to make the consoling practices of the Christian religion, and above all, Holy Communion, an integral part of our lives, in so far as we shall be able to do so.
Finally, we promise you, O glorious Mother of God and loving Mother of all, to devote ourselves whole-heartedly to your service, in order to hasten and assure, through the sovereignty of your Immaculate Heart, the coming of the kingdom of the Sacred Heart of your adorable Son, in our own hearts and in the hearts of all, in our country and in all the world, as in heaven, so on earth. Amen.
In a letter St. Pio gave vent to a delicate filial gentleness, writing: “Here we are at last in the month of our beautiful Mother once again…. This dear Mother continues to lavish her maternal care upon me, especially during the present month. She takes care of me to an exceeding degree…. I am all aflame although there is no fire. I feel myself held fast and bound to the Son by means of this Mother…. I’d like to fly off to invite all creatures to love Jesus and Mary.”
Ave Maria!
