There are moments in our lives when we need all the help that we can get. We feel distant from God and His will for us, and it is hard to begin praying again. This usually happens when life becomes too busy, stressful or difficult. That is why Our Lady Of Good Studies was revealed to mankind. She represents the motherly care of God for us, and besides praying for us, she helps reduce our workload, assists in keeping our focus on the most important things, brings peace during times of darkness and comforts the hearts of those who pray to her. The Prayer to Our Lady of Good Studies is a Catholic prayer of thanksgiving that gives praise and glory to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The prayer asks help to obtain blessings while at the same time asking her to intervene on your behalf with her Divine Son. There are many, many people who have a desire to live a more spiritual life, but they don’t know how. My suggestion is this—go to the Mother of God. As Saint Louis De Montfort said: [1]
O Blessed Virgin, Mother of Goodness and of my soul! What would I do without thy powerful intercession with thy adorable Son? How could I endure the sorrows of this life, if thou didst not stand my advocate before the throne? I’ve always been fascinated by images of Mary and Jesus as little children lounging on pillows, playing with blocks and engaging in other adorable activities. Their fake little-kid expressions never failed to get a chuckle. And then I wondered what it’d be like if they grew up, but they still maintained the same level of affection for their parents? Would we all want that? Well, that’s what this devotion is all about. Spoiler alert: she still loves her daddy! Sadly, she’s put him down for too many after-midnight phone calls. So she’s not giving out the prayer I’m about to share…yet…
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. Saint Maria Louisa of France, you who loved Jesus and Mary so intensely that you consecrated yourself to them body and soul, look kindly upon me, who am so sadly forgetful that my mind is full of worry and distress. Look down with gracious eyes upon the work which I have in hand. Console me with your help, comfort me with your assistance in my labors; help me never to lose sight of our blessed purpose, but rather to persevere calmly and peacefully until all is accomplished for love of Jesus and Mary, who live and reign forever.
Prayer To Our Lady Of Good Studies
Many of you are students, or know a student — and students are needing prayers about this time of year. (Exams!)
While speaking with ‘Rosary Priest’ Father Patrick Peyton, convert to Catholicism and media professor Marshall McLuhan revealed his favorite title of the Blessed Virgin Mary — Our Mother (Our Lady) of Good Studies:
I think of Our Lady as a perpetual means of aid in my studies. I think of her as Our Mother of Good Studies all the time. She herself, having spent her years in the temple as a young girl studying the scriptures, has always been made as the patron of studies, has she not?
This seems to me, at a time like this, as a very great role for her to play, because the things we now have to study in the world are rather tremendous and new.
[…] She is not only a Mother of Good Studies but a mother of all the joy and all the excitement and satisfaction to be found in study and in understanding. Her own relation to these things was joyful, and her whole being is playful and joyful. She is also Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Mercy, but in this relationship with studies there is that of joyful discovery.
We live in a world in which discovery is not only a source of joy but discovery is now possible on a fantastic new scale. In the Electric Age, the amount of information available to man about himself and about the rest of mankind and about the world we live in – the amount of information available instantly and totally at all times is beyond anything that previous ages ever knew. So I think of her as having an especially important role to play in this age of tremendous learning.
Chris Castagnoli shares the following prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas to Our Lady that he found in a 1916 prayer book — contemporary to McLuhan. May all you students find joy in your studies!
O Mary, Mother of fair love, of fear, of knowledge, and of holy hope, by whose loving care and intercession many, otherwise poor in intellect, have wonderfully advanced in knowledge and in holiness, thee do I choose as the guide and patroness of my studies; and I humbly implore, through the deep tenderness of thy maternal love, and especially through that eternal Wisdom who deigned to take from thee our flesh and who gifted thee beyond all the saints with heavenly light, that thou wouldst obtain for me by thy intercession the grace of the Holy Spirit that I may be able to grasp with strong intellect, retain in memory, proclaim by word and deed, and teach others all things which bring honor to thee and to thy Son, and which for me and for others are salutary for eternal life. Amen.