OUR LADY OF POWER

 Day 2: May 12





This devotion to Mary is associated with the church of Notre-Name-des-Vetrus in Aubervilliers, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. This Catholic church may have been built in the Carolingian era.

In 1336, the place experienced a long drought. A small girl went into the church of St Christopher to decorate the statue of Our Lady with flowers. The girl prayed to Our Lady for rain. She noticed that the statue of Our Lady started to sweat. Soon the sky grew dark and started to rain. This event is later known as the Miracle of Rain.

The church bell rang in jubilation as the miracle of rain occurred. The people thronged in the church to witness the miracle. This was just the beginning of a series of miracles that occurred. Pilgrimages have been arranged since then, especially from different parishes in Paris. Numerous miracles have been reported over the centuries, including the two children brought back to life.

The flow of pilgrims was such that the small sanctuary had to be built into a bigger church in the fifteenth century. The inscription on the base of the thirty meter high squared tower claims that it was built by Louis XI in 1541. Louis XIII promised to build a church dedicated to the Virgin in Paris in 1614. Faithful to his promise, he built Notre-Dame-des-Victoires. This church is considered as the daughter church of Notre-Dame-des-Vertus.

The Archbishop of Paris confirmed the feast day on the second Tuesday in May, as the month of May is the Marian month according to Catholic tradition. The miraculous wooden statue of Our Lady of Power was desecrated and burned on October 2, 1793 during the French Revolution. One of her hands was saved from the flames and has been preserved to this day. Another statue was made by Baffet House in 1873 and is located in the left chapel. This statue is a copy of an old statue in the chapel Saint-Julien-Le-Pauvre at Hotel-Dieu. It was inserted into a Neo Gothic frame, flanked by two angels holding phylacteries, which recall the miracle in 1582 when the Blessed Mother restored a stillborn child to life.

Prayer to Mary

Hail Mary, beloved Daughter of the Eternal Father! Hail Mary, admirable Mother of the Son! Hail Mary, faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit! Hail Mary, my dear Mother, my loving Mistress, my powerful sovereign! Hail my joy, my glory, my heart, and my soul! You art all mine by mercy, and I am all yours by justice. But I am not yet sufficiently yours. I now give myself wholly to you without keeping anything back for myself or others. If you still see in me anything which does not belong to you, I beseech you to take it and to make yourself the absolute Mistress of all that is mine. Destroy in me all that may be displeasing to God; root it up and bring it to naught; place and cultivate in me everything that is pleasing to you.

May the light of your faith dispel the darkness of my mind; may your profound humility take the place of my pride; may your sublime contemplation check the distractions of my wandering imagination; may your continuous sight of God fill my memory with His presence; may the burning love of your heart inflame the lukewarmness of mine; may your virtues take the place of my sins; may your merits be my only adornment in the sight of God and make up for all that is wanting in me.

Finally, dearly beloved Mother, grant, if it be possible, that I may have no other spirit but yours, to know Jesus and His divine will; that I may have no other soul but yours, to praise and glorify the Lord; that I may have no other heart but yours, to love God with a love as pure and ardent as yours.

I do not ask you for visions, revelations, sensible devotion, or spiritual pleasures. It is your privilege to see God clearly; it is your privilege to enjoy heavenly bliss; it is your privilege to triumph gloriously in Heaven at the right hand of your Son and to hold absolute sway over angels, men and demons; it is your privilege to dispose of all the gifts of God just as you will.

Such is, O heavenly Mary, the “best part,” which the Lord has given you and which shall never be taken away from you—and this thought fills my heart with joy. As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that which was yours: to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures; to suffer joyfully without human consolation; to die continually to myself without respite; and to work zealously and unselfishly for you until death as the humblest of your servants.

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