Devotion for today: Hail, Lady of the Angels!

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a prayer to the most Blessed Virgin Mary, expressing his own need for help and dependence upon her as his mediatrix. From this prayer, several pages in length, I quote a few brief excerpts:

O most blessed and sweet Virgin Mary,

Mother of God, filled with all tenderness,
Daughter of the most high King,
Lady of the Angels,
Mother of all the faithful,

On this day and all the days of my life,

I entrust to your merciful heart my body and my soul,
all my acts, thoughts, choices,
desires, words, deeds,
my entire life and death,

So that, with your assistance,

all may be ordered to the good
according to the will of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ....

From your beloved Son...

request for me the grace to resist firmly
the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil....

My most holy Lady,

I also beseech you to obtain for me
true obedience and true humility of heart

So that I may recognize myself truly

as a sinner--wretched and weak--
and powerless,
without the grace and help of my Creator
and without your holy prayers....

Obtain for me as well,

O most sweet Lady,
true charity with which from the depths of my heart
I may love your most holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
and, after Him,
love you above all other things....

Grant, O Queen of Heaven,

that ever in my heart
I may have fear and love alike
for your most sweet Son....

I pray also that, at the end of my life,

you,

Mother without compare,
Gate of Heaven and Advocate of sinners....
will protect me with your great piety and mercy....

and obtain for me, through the blessed and glorious Passion of your Son

and through your own intercession,
received in hope, the forgiveness of all my sins.

When I die in your love and His love,

may you direct me
into the way of salvation and blessedness.

Amen. 

http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/thomasaquinas.html