Our Mother of Perpetual Help Protects Her Devotees in all the Necessities and Afflictions of Life

 Let us consider that the world is a place of trial, a valley of tears and weeping. Who is unaware of it? "Man," says Job, "born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many works and miseries."

His works is that of Calvary. Such is the condition of every mortal. That is why the author of the "Imitation of Christ" says, "Man needs consolation."

And this consolation. . .where will our afflicted heart find it? Perhaps in our friends and neighbors? Ah, no! Usually they look with indifference upon our tribulations. Our tears do not move them. And if one of them is moved to compassion upon seeing our sorrow, often he does not know how to mitigate it in the least because he is impotent. Of whom can we ask help in poverty, consolation in affliction, counsel in doubts? Of Whom but of Her Who is the Perpetual Help of mortals.

Look, afflicted soul, see how the Divine Infant clasps the hand of His tender Mother. He has seen the Cross and the instruments of His Passion the angels present to Him and He has become terrified and His Heart has said, "My sorrow is always before My eyes."

But where does He seek consolation? In His good Mother Who extends Her hand to Him to support and comfort Him in His sufferings! Let us learn from this heavenly Infant to have recourse to the compassionate Mother of Perpetual Help in our afflictions and trials. Perpetual are our miseries. But, oh consolation! Perpetual also is Her help.

Poor soul! Do not be discouraged. Your Mother sees the many and varied calamities that grieve you. She sees what torments your body and afflicts your soul.

Are you poor? Neither the necessities of your family nor the afflictions of your heart nor the tears you shed for lack of means with which to procure food for them or to satisfy your creditors or to provide honestly for your children pass unnoticed by Her.

Are you ill? She sees the pain consuming you, the abhorrence afflicting you, the fear oppressing you, the days you pass without relief, the nights you count without rest.

Are you the target of another’s envy or anger? Are you calumniated? Do you find reason for affliction within your own family? This compassionate Mother witnesses your bitterness, the injustices committed against you in tribunals, the harm your rivals cause you, the outrages and offenses you receive from your relatives. She counts your tears. This, with all the rest afflicting you, She sees without withdrawing Her penetrating and benign glance from you for one moment.

And She not only sees it, but it seems She feels it more vividly than you yourself. A mother is of mercy. And that is why, just as She sees our miseries with the eyes of a mother, She sympathizes with them. In such a way that, just as the foot of the Cross the wounds of the most sacred Body of Jesus were reflected in the loving Heart of Mary, thus all the injuries of our wounded heart are reproduced in that of our heavenly Mother.

Finally, this tender Mother not only sees our miseries and our heart open and is moved by our misfortunes, but also She has Her hands extended in a gesture of helping us with all haste. And She exercises this pious office with us continually. Is She doing anything but granting us help in our necessities? Ah! No matter how little we dedicate our thoughts to the many laborious evils to which we are subject in life we will come to see that in everything She defends us, relieves us, protects us.

At the wedding feast of Cana, scarcely was She aware of the lack of wine, of the shame of the bridegroom and of the disturbance of the guests when, moved to compassion, She presented that necessity to Her Son, begging Him sweetly to apply the opportune remedy. Thus, in the same way now that She is seated gloriously at the right hand of Her Son in Heaven, She continually discloses to Him all our necessities. She begs Him without ceasing either to alleviate our miseries or to provide powerful help to suffer them with humble resignation as this or that may redound to His greater glory and our spiritual good.

Well then, if such are the benign effects we experience every day from the loving help of Mary, what must be our gratitude toward a Mother so kind, what must be our affection for a Mother so tender, what must be our confidence in a Mother Who loves us so and concerns Herself so much with us? She has Her eyes always fixed on our miseries with Her Heart always disposed to be compassionate and with Her hands always open in an attitude of remedying them. Let us have continuous and devout recourse, then, to this most kind Mother, disclosing to Her with filial confidence all our needs. And let us be assured that through Her we will have our perpetual relief, encouragement and consolation. Amen.