A Prayer to Our Lady Spoken 15 years Ago by St. John Paul II

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In anticipation of this Feast, last night we participated in the Colombian tradition called the Day of the Little Candles. We began by placing two lanterns in front of our house. One lantern was placed on each side of Our Lady. We placed within the lanterns candles made to look like wedding cakes. These we have had for many years but as I thought of Our Lady I thought that we should give the best to her and so the fancy wedding cake candles would be perfect! 

Our Lady of course was fond of weddings and took a special interest that one particular wedding did not go without sufficient wine. And so the candles were placed inside the lanterns. The illuminated heart with the flame in the middle was a very special image that one of my children was able to capture in the picture above.

We prayed in the dark before a statue of Our Lady. Kostin our older son knelt down in front of Our Lady. We included in our prayers the Children's Rosary. We went inside and then an idea came. Asher had asked if we could put more lanterns outside. 

It was then that I remembered four more candles we had. The kids rushed to help in setting up the additional candles and the lanterns we had made. Within two of the lanterns, were candles with the image of St. John Paul II. While outside looking at the candles and praying, a memory came - a prayer that is at the end of our Children's Rosary book. It is a prayer uttered by St. John Paul II at the Piazza di Spagna on December 8th 2002 (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception) 15 years ago. Remembering the prayer I went and got a copy of our Children's Rosary book and said the prayer aloud before the statue of Our Lady. This is that prayer:

"Holy Mary, Mother of God pray for us!"

Pray, O Mother for all of us.

Pray for humanity who suffers poverty and injustice,

violence and hatred, terror and war.

Help us to contemplate with the rosary

the mysteries of Him who "is our peace,"

so that we will all feel involved

in a persevering dedication of service to peace.

Look with special attention

upon the land in which you gave birth to Jesus,

a land that you loved together with Him,

and that is still so sorely tried today.

Pray for us, Mother of hope!

Give us days of peace, watch over our way.

Let us see your Son as we rejoice in heaven. Amen!

Looking at the candles more I marvel at this image of St. John Paul on a candle. A candle that was being used to honor Mary by shining its light through a window in the lantern cut out to look like Our Blessed Mother. Now 15 years after he utter the words addressed to Our Blessed Mother, he was still drawing our attention to the Blessed Virgin Mary of whom he loved so much. 

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

Children's Rosary Book

Children's Rosary - A View from Heaven
A Journey to Bring the Baby Jesus to the Children

Don't forget to unify prayers with the children during their meetings. A schedule of meetings is present on our website. By clicking "Join in Prayer" you can add your gold flashing light to our View from Heaven map.

For more information about the Children's Rosary visit our website: www.childrensrosary.org
Visite nuestro sitio web en español para obtener más información: www.rosariodeninos.org