Health of the Sick, Remember Us

“Let us run to Mary, and, as her little children, cast ourselves into her arms with a perfect confidence.”
–Saint Francis de Sales

One of the titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary is Health of the Sick. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O. P. (b. 1877- d. 1964) writes about this Marian title in his book, The Mother of the Savior. Traditionally, the Catholic faithful have called upon Our Lady to remember them in their needs (a.k.a., their sicknesses) through the prayer of the Memorare; but more on that prayer in a bit. First, here is an excerpt from Fr. Garrigou- Lagrange’s The Mother of the Savior, which explains the assistance Our Lady obtains for us when we ask for her help:

“Mary is Health of the Sick by the many providential or miraculous cures which have been obtained through her intercession in Christian sanctuaries up to our own days. So many have these cures been that it may be said that Mary is a fathomless ocean of miraculous healing. But it is to help the infirmity of the soul that she cures the body. Her most important cures are those of the four spiritual wounds which we have suffered as a result of original sin and our personal sins —- the wounds of concupiscence, of weakness, of ignorance, and of malice.

She heals concupiscence —- a wound of our sensibility—- by diminishing the ardor of our passions and by breaking our sinful habits. She helps the sinner to begin to will what is right with sufficient firmness to enable him to reject evil desires as well as the appeal of honors and riches. In this way she cures the concupiscence of the flesh and that of the eyes.

She heals the wound of weakness too, our feeble pursuit of the good, our spiritual sloth. She makes the will constant and firm in its practice of virtue and helps it to despise the attractions of this world by throwing itself into the arms of God. she strengthens those who falter and lifts up those who have fallen.

She heals the wound of ignorance by lighting up the darkness of our minds and providing us with the means to escape from error. She calls to our minds the simple and profound truths of the Our Father, thereby lifting our minds up to God. St. Albert the Great, to whom she gave the light to persevere in his vocation and to see through the wiles of Satan, said frequently that she preserves us from losing rightness and firmness of judgment, that she helps us not to grow weary in the pursuit of truth, and that she leads us eventually to a relish of the things of God. He himself speaks of her in his Mariale with a spontaneity , an admiration, a freshness, and a fluency which are rarely found in the works of great students.

She heals us finally of the wounds of malice, by urging our wills Godwards, sometimes by gentle advice, sometimes by stern reproaches. Her sweetness checks anger, her humility lowers pride and restrains the temptations of the evil one. In a word, she heals us of the wounds which we bear as a result of original sin and which our personal sin has made all the more dangerous.

Sometimes this healing power of hers works in a miraculous manner by producing its effects instantaneously. An example is the conversion of the young Alphonse Ratisbonne, at the time a Jew and far removed from the faith, who visited the Church of Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte in Rome through curiosity. Mary appeared to him there, as she is represented on the miraculous medal, with rays of light issuing from her hands. She indicated gently to him to kneel. He obeyed, and while on his knees lost the use of his senses. when he returned to himself he expressed an intense desire for Baptism. He was baptized and later, with his brother who had been converted before him, founded the congregation of the Fathers of Sion and that of the Religious of Sion, to pray, suffer, and work for the conversion of the Jews, saying daily at Holy Mass: ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'”

The Marian Franciscan saint, Fr. Maximilian Kolbe (b. 1894- d. 1941), prayed his first Mass at the Church of Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte (link) in Rome in honor of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin, and the miraculous conversion of Fr. Ratisbonne, which took place there. Side note: the amazing story of Fr. Ratisbonne can be found on numerous web sites; here’s a link to one: conversion of Fr. Ratisbonne.

It is startling to read the accounts of the actions Our Lady takes on behalf of her children, and it is a bit disconcerting how she has been neglected in Catholic instruction over the past fifty years. Hopefully this neglect will end, and we will see a return to traditional Catholic Marian devotion and love. It is as Fr. Faber wrote in 1862 (long before this current near extinction of Marian devotion):

“…what is the remedy that is wanted? (for lack of devotion to Christ, added by SF) What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the Saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Here, in England, Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. It is frightened out of its wits by the sneers of heresy. It is always invoking human respect and carnal prudence, wishing to make Mary so little of a Mary that Protestants may feel at ease about her. Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy. It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no faith in itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls, which might be saints, wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelised.

Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the Saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother. I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for anyone than the simple spreading of this peculiar devotion of the Venerable Grignon de Montfort (total consecration to Jesus through Mary, can be read in True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort, added by SCF). Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ.

Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our faith, and how different would our Communions be!

Oh, if Mary were but known, how much happier, how much holier, how much less worldly should we be, and how much more should we be living images of our sole Lord and Saviour, her dearest and most blessed Son!”

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, there is a wonderful prayer which has a rich history in the lives of the Roman Catholic people, a history that involves invoking Our Lady for assistance in their needs (sicknesses), in the trials and tribulations of this life; the prayer is called the Memorare. The prayer is as follows:

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, 
that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, 
implored your help, or sought your intercession, 
was left unaided. 
Inspired by this confidence, 
I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. 
To you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. 
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, 
despise not my petitions, 
but in your mercy, hear and answer me.
Amen.

Many saints have prayed the Memorare. It played a role in the conversion of Fr. Ratisbonne (above). It played a role in the life of the great bishop, St. Francis de Sales, as noted in the following:

The de Sales family were members of the minor nobility and staunch Catholics, but St. Francis de Sales fell victim to the religious turmoil of his age. The question of predestination, the hottest point of contention between Catholic and Calvinist theologians, tormented him while he was a student in Paris. In his distress over the uncertain fate of his soul he cried out to God, “Whatever happens, Lord, may I at least love you in this life if I cannot love you in eternity.” At the age of 18, while studying at the Jesuit run College de Clermont at the University of Paris, according to the book The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, by Jean-Pierre Camus: “the evil spirit was permitted by God to insinuate into his mind the terrible idea that he was one of the number of the damned. This delusion took such possession of his soul that he lost his appetite, was unable to sleep, and day by day grew more wasted and languid. His tutor and director noticing how his health was affected, and how pale, listless, and joyless he had become often questioned him as to the cause of his dejection and evident suffering, but his tormentor who had filled his mind with this delusion, being what is called a dumb devil, the poor youth could give no explanation. For one whole month he suffered this mental torture, this agony of soul. He had lost all the sweetness of divine love, but not, happily, his fidelity to it. He looked back with happy tears to the happy time when he was, as it were, inebriated with that sweetness, nor did any ray of hope illumine the darkness of that night of despair. In late December, at last, led by a divine inspiration, he entered a church to pray that this agony might pass. On his knees before a statue of the Blessed Virgin he implored the assistance of the Mother of Mercy with tears and sighs, and the most fervent devotion.”

According to De Sales’ Selected Letters, the “torment of despair came to a sudden end” as he knelt in prayer before the statue of Our Lady of Good Deliverance (the Black Madonna) at the church of Saint-Etienne-des-Gres, Paris, saying the Memorare. Francis credited the Blessed Virgin with “saving him from falling into despair or heresy”; he “recited the Memorare day after day”, and she “did not leave him unaided”. source

There are other stories involving the Memorare:

It (the Memorare, added by SF) was popularized in the 17th century by Fr. Claude Bernard, (d.1641) who learned it from his father. Bernard’s devotion to Our Lady under the title Consolatrix Afflictorum (Comforter of the Afflicted) led him to promote recourse to her intercession among the poor and condemned prisoners. According to the book Familiar Prayers: Their Origin and History written by Fr. Herbert Thurston, S.J. in 1953: “Fr. Claude Bernard, known as the “Poor Priest”, zealously dedicated himself to the preaching and aiding of prisoners and criminals condemned to death. Trusting his charges to the care and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Fr. Bernard employed the Memorare extensively in his work of evangelization to great effect. Many a criminal was reconciled to God through his efforts. At one time he had more than 200,000 leaflets printed with the Memorare in various languages so he could distribute the leaflets wherever he felt they would do some good. Part of the reason Fr. Claude Bernard held the prayer in such high regard was because he himself felt that he had been miraculously cured by its use. In a letter to Queen Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, he wrote that he was deathly ill once. In fear of his life he recited the Memorare and immediately began to get well again. Feeling unworthy of such a miracle, he attributed the cure to some unknown natural cause. Sometime later, Brother Fiacre, a discalced Augustinian, came to call upon Fr. Bernard. The good brother begged Fr. Bernard’s pardon for disturbing him, but he desired to know how Fr. Bernard was getting along. Brother Fiacre then went on to say that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him in a vision, told him of Fr. Bernard’s illness, told him how she had cured Fr. Bernard of it, and that he was to assure Fr. Bernard of this fact. Fr. Bernard then goes on to write in his letter that he was ashamed of his ingratitude in attributing the cure to natural causes, and asked for God’s forgiveness in the matter.”

The prayer became popular in England by way of France, and appeared in the 1856 edition of Bishop Richard Challoner’s The Garden of the Soul. In a 1918 article published in the Month on the theme of Familiar Prayers, Herbert Thurston discussed the “Memorare” as one of the prayers he considered representative of English Catholic prayer. By “familiar”, Thurston meant those prayers most of the faithful knew by heart. There were at least five separate versions circulating at that time. Mary Heinman observes that the “Memorare” “…became an English Catholic favorite in the post-1850 period for reasons which had no direct connection to either with papal directives or native tradition.”

William Fitzgerald notes, “Calling on Mary to “remember” is an act of boldness, but it is boldness justified by tradition….Mary needs no reminder of her role in the realm of salvation. However, those who call upon her do require such reminders, if not specifically then more generally – to remind them of their place as supplicants before the Virgin Mary.”Asking Mary to intercede as Advocate does not guarantee that a specific request will be granted, only that divine assistance will be. source

Today, in the Memorare, let us ask Our Lady to remember us, and come to our assistance, as she is the Health of the Sick:

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, 
that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, 
implored your help, or sought your intercession, 
was left unaided. 
Inspired by this confidence, 
I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. 
To you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. 
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, 
despise not my petitions, 
but in your mercy, hear and answer me.
Amen. ♥

Have a good day!

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