Devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help - Tuesday Mornings after the 6:30 a.m. Mass
Devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is the most widespread Marian devotion throughout the world. As long as we have doubts and fears, uncertainties and preoccupations, worries and problems, devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help will never grow old. Since she accompanied her son Jesus with faith throughout the events in his life (cf. Mt 1:18, Lk 2:35), she is ideally positioned to understand our situation today. Once the woman of prayer in Nazareth, she is now also the woman of help, who set out with haste from her own village to go to see Elizabeth and be of service (Lk 1:39). The public veneration of the icon of our Mother of Perpetual Help has resulted in striking miracles and marvels of grace. Please join us on Tuesday mornings after the 6:30 a.m. Mass to honor our Blessed Mother and ask her to intercede to our Lord Jesus for our intentions.
The miraculous image of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is an icon, painted on wood, and seems to have originated around the 13th century on the Greek island of Crete. The original artist of the icon is unknown is unknown. However, at some point in the late 15th century, the icon was brought to Italy from Crete. In 1499 the icon came to the Church of St. Matthew in Rome where it was venerated for nearly 300 years until the church was destroyed in 1798 during the Napoleonic invasions. The icon disappeared for over 50 years but was discovered through the intercession of our Mother of Perpetual Help. On December 11, 1865, Pope Pius IX entrusted the icon to the Redemptorists and asked them to “make her known throughout the world.” The image was enshrined in the Church of St. Alphonsus Ligouri in Rome, built at the site of the former Church of St. Matthew, where it remains to this day.
Each element of the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help has a specific meaning:
- Mary’s eyes, filled with compassion and love, are directed toward us.
- Our Lady is clothed in the colors of virgins (red) and of mothers (blue). These are also royal colors.
- Jesus, depicted as a young boy, wears the colors of a king.
- The star on Mary’s veil reminds us that she is the dawn announcing the coming of Christ.
- Our Lady’s hands hold her Son securely, and her right hand directs our gaze to Him.
- The Christ Child grasps his mother’s hand as though he is frightened by what he sees.
- On Our Lady’s left and right we see the reasons for the child’s fear. On the right is the Archangel Gabriel, holding a cross and four nails. On the left is the Archangel Michael, holding a lance, a pole with a sponge, and a vessel of vinegar. This vision of the instruments of the crucifixion has driven the young Jesus to his mother’s protective embrace.
- In His hurry to reach his mother, Jesus has almost lost one of his sandals. He became human, like us, in all things but sin.
- Yet Our Lady’s gaze is fixed on us, her children on earth. She is our source of constant comfort and hope.
“Prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help”
O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. O Purest Mary, O Sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.