Ave Maria Meditations
Mother of the Redeemer, it might well be that I am now near the end of my life and therefore I ask even more insistently for your help. I see myself suspended as it were between heaven and hell. What will my fate be if you do not use your power with Jesus on my behalf?
In your hands He has placed the most precious graces for distribution to men. In your compassion give them to me no less than to others. At that hour I need them more than ever before. Perhaps I am momentarily to appear before the judgment seat where I must give an account of my life. Speak for me before that moment comes! For the Mother of my Judge will certainly obtain a favorable judgment for me.
I thank you for all the goodness you have shown me throughout my life even when I am most unworthy of it. Shall you refuse your protection now when my confidence in you is growing along with my growing need? Loving mother, most loving of all mothers, you will surely not abandon your dying child help to the last breath….
My God, God of Mercy, I now ask You for a new favor: that I may be saved through the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, whom the Church bids us invoke at all times but especially at the hour of our death.
From The Imitation of Mary.
