VIRGIN MOST POWERFUL

(1) MARY, you are most powerful in your intercession with God because of your sanctity. God has all power of Himself, while you, being a creature, receive your power from God. The saints have influence with God because they are His friends; He loves them as a father loves his good children.

How much greater must your influence be, since, unlike the saints, you are free from every stain of imperfection and sin. You combine in yourself every virtue which the saints had, and in each virtue you reach the highest perfection. Since God loves the saints according to the degree of sanctity they have attained, He loves you most; and if He loves you most, your intercession is more powerful than theirs.

(2) MARY, you are most powerful because of the dignity of your divine motherhood. Dearly as God loves the saints, they are only His servants; but you are His Mother. All that the best of mothers can be to her child, this and much more you have been to the Divine Child. You served Him in all His needs with tender love and faithfulness. You shared joy and sorrow with Him till the last moment of His life. Jesus in all His glory still has His human nature.

What great confidence I should have in you! If even a sinful man cannot resist the requests of his mother, Jesus, who is sanctity itself, surely cannot refuse your requests. You refused Him nothing while on earth; He can refuse you nothing in heaven. You are all-powerful in your intercession with God. The saints have called you "Suppliant Omnipotence" because by your prayers you are able to obtain all things that are not contrary to the will of God.

(3) MARY, you are most powerful in relieving the temporal and spiritual needs of mankind. You are the compassionate intercessor of sinners, the help of the helpless, the Mother of orphans, the consolation of the sorrowing, the health of the sick, the comfort of the afflicted, and the salvation of mankind. Your power shows itself especially in those cases in which all human help fails. You are truly the Mother of Perpetual Help.

Virgin Most Powerful, let me ever remember that my own prayers will have greater effect if I keep from sin and lead a holy life. God is inclined to answer the prayers of the innocent, whom He loves more deeply and rewards more generously. I am happy to have a Mother to help me who is so powerful. I place all my confidence in you.

Through your prayers I hope to obtain help in my temporal and spiritual needs. Pray for me that I may detest sin, keep the commandments, love God with all my heart and my neighbor for the love of God, lead a life of prayer and virtue, and one day deserve the reward of the just in heaven.

O Lord God Almighty, You willed that all things should be given to us through the Immaculate Mother of Your Son; grant that under the protection of this mighty Mother, we may escape all the dangers of these our times, and in the end may come to life everlasting. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. (Feast of the Miraculous Medal, Nov. 27)