Mariners Guided Into Port

“As mariners are guided into port by the shining of a star, so Christians are guided to heaven by Mary.”
-- St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a lengthy "Prayer to the Blessed Virgin," which can be found in Devoutly I Adore Thee, translated and edited by Robert Anderson and Johann Moser (Manchester, New Hampshire: Sophia Institute Press, 1933).  Below are just a few lines where St. Thomas expresses his own devotion to Mary:

O most blessed and sweet Virgin Mary,
Mother of God, filled with all tenderness,
Daughter of the most high King,
Lady of the Angels,
Mother of all the faithful,
On this day and all the days of my life,
I entrust to your merciful heart my body and my soul,
all my acts, thoughts, choices,
desires, words, deeds,
my entire life and death,
So that, with your assistance,
all may be ordered to the good
according to the will of your beloved Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ...

I pray also that, at the end of my life,
you, Mother without compare,
Gate of Heaven and Advocate of sinners,
will protect me with your great piety and mercy....

and obtain for me,
through the blessed and glorious Passion of your Son
and through your own intercession,
received in hope, the forgiveness of all my sins.
When I die in your love and His love,
may you direct me
into the way of salvation and blessedness.
Amen.

Photo by Daniel Lincoln