One of the very ancient and beloved prayers of the Church that has to do with Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ, is called the Angelus prayer. And it is beloved because it is so simple and straightforward. If you have ever visited Rome in Italy, and spent any time there, you will have noticed that around 6 am and Noon and 6 pm, churches around Rome start ringing their bells for three minutes. And that is because those churches are praying the Angelus prayer, the prayer centered on the Annunciation to Mary. At the end of the Angelus is this prayer: “Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.” I want to reflect today on what it means to ask Mary to pray for us.

Within the community of second Temple Judaism two thousand years ago, a little girl was born to her parents Anne and Joachim, and this girl was named Mary. She was not to be the messiah, but rather, to be full of grace and be the Mother of the Messiah. Through her was to come a Son, as revealed to the prophet Isaiah: a virgin would conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Imman′u-el (which means God with us). Isaiah also prophesied that “There shall come forth a rod from the root stump of Jesse, and a branch shall flower out of his roots. The Church Father Saint Ambrose of Milan (who fell asleep in the year of our Lord 397) said this of the revelation to Isaiah: "The root is the household of the Jews, the rod is Mary, the Flower of Mary is Christ. She is rightly called a rod, for she is of the royal lineage, of the house and family of David. Her Flower is Christ, Who destroyed the stench of worldly pollution and poured out the fragrance of eternal life. As He Himself said, 'I am a flower of the plain, a lily of the valleys.'" Because from Mary comes Christ’s human flesh, and because Christ is our salvation, it is fitting to understand Mary as fundamentally instrumental in our salvation.

We see the same in the Upper Room. As the 120 apostles prayed in one accord over the nine days after Ascension and before Pentecost, Mary was there. She was there as the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles as they were conceiving the true Christ in their mind, and made it the Church of Christ in its fullness; just as she was there when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her at the Annunciation when she had conceived Christ in her mind, so that just would conceive Him in her womb. Who would the 120 apostles look to among themselves for guidance and loving strength but Mary, who knew of her Son’s divinity from the beginning? Who would not have wanted Mary to pray for the whole assembly? Mary is the Mother of Christ, she is the Mother of the Church. She is most blessed, because more so than any disciple, Mary heard the word of God and kept it. She always chose the good portion, which is her Son Jesus Christ, and He shall never be taken away from her.

The Church often asks Blessed Mary to pray for us. And it is important to reflect on what it means to do so. Mary was living, and had been living, with the revelation of God in Christ for over twenty years. When we ask any person who is tangibly living with the revelation to pray for us, to intercede for us, it seems to me that we are saying three things at once. The first is that we are asking the person to say or think something that will help us in some way. “Pray for us, because we really need it.” This is obviously a way of speaking when we are faced with some difficult challenge or obstacle, or perhaps when we are suffering in a particularly acute way. Because that person exhibits a sense of holy, we are comforted by God, through them, and, who knows, maybe this will lead to relief. So we ask Mary to pray for us.

The second dimension of “pray for us” is we are asking the person to pray because we are not able to, or not able to as well as the person we are asking. “Pray for us” here means vicarious: say or think something on our behalf, in our stead. Here, through these three words, we recognize that some people have a vocation to pray. A vocation to be a Pray-er, in the sense of praying in a committed, disciplined way. In his letter to the Romans, St Paul writes that “For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” And so when we ask Mary to pray for us, we are recognizing her vocation to full-time prayer, and we are sharing in that vocation. Prayer is a gift that can only be shared. Her special gift of prayer becomes, through her, our gift. As in the Upper Room, so in our hearts: when Mary prays, all benefit.

And the third, fullest sense of “Pray for us” means relationship. When we ask Mary to pray for us, we are asking her to be in relationship with us, and we are acknowledging our relationship with her. There is a simple, elegant beauty in doing just that. When relationship is not recognized, the health of the relationship falters. Regular, daily acknowledgment of relationship is the key to its health. We say “pray for us, Mary” because we know that being in relationship with her is better than not. That being in relationship with Mary, because of her relationship with Christ, makes us healthier.

In the words of Church Father S. Ephrem the Syrian, "In Mary, the Creator found a dwelling, and Wisdom built its home in her womb." At the end of it all, let us adore God the Father and His choice of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be blessed among women, and the home God made in her womb, the Church’s Upper Room. May the Nativity of Blessed Mary Theotokos inspire our prayer. May it bring us peace and joy. And may our peace and joy echo Mary’s glorious song, so much that her song becomes ours: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Pray for us O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

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