Mary, Guide Me in the Way of Salvation: A Tender Prayer to Our Lady by St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas is well-known as a brilliant philosopher and theologian, the most celebrated in the Church. In addition to being a scholar, he was also a remarkable mystic and poet. Aquinas puts to rest the commonly believed notion that academic intelligence diminishes religious piety. Aquinas followed both his mind and his soul, and he did so gloriously.  Along with skillfully disputing with other philosophers on the nuanced controversies of day, he fostered the tenderest of devotions to the Blessed Mother.

Read next St. Thomas Aquinas: Master Theologian, Mystic, and Poet

A PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY BY ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

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 actions, thoughts, decisions, desires, words, deeds, my entire life and death, so that, with your assistance, everything may be ordered to the good according to the will of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. From your beloved Son, beg for me the grace firmly to resist the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

My most holy Lady, I also beg you to obtain for me true obedience and humility of heart so that I may see myself truly as a sinner, miserable and weak and powerless, without the grace and assistance of my Creator and without your holy prayers. Obtain for me as well, most sweet Lady, true charity, so that from the depths of my heart I may love your most holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ and, after him, love you above all others. Grant, Queen of Heaven, that always in my heart I may both fear and love your most sweet Son.

I pray also that, at the end of my life, Mother beyond compare, gate of heaven and advocate of sinners, you 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, the forgiveness of all my sins, which I hope to receive. When I die in your love and his love, guide me in the way of salvation and blessedness.

- St. Thomas Aquinas

This prayer is found in A Year with the Saints: Daily Meditations with the Holy Ones of God.