Speaking Out: Our Lady helps us find our way

Employers often require references from new hires to ensure they are the best candidate. A worthwhile process, to be sure, but not an approach one should have when sampling Marian devotions.

However, if one were to audit prayers to Our Lady, the devotion to Our Lady of Good Remedy would carry only the best testimonials from those who had relied on her intercession in past tumultuous or challenging financial circumstances.

The devotion to Our Lady of Good Remedy began in 1198 when St. John of Matha (1160-1213) founded the Brothers of the Holy Trinity (the Trinitarians) in response to a severe trial facing Christendom.

Muslims were capturing Catholic men, women and children in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain and selling them into slavery. The Trinitarians’ mission was upholding the freedom of all. According to Britannica.com, the brave Trinitarians entered Muslim slave markets throughout Europe protected by the mantle of Our Lady to buy back the enslaved Christians and set them free, which required a large amount of money.

St. John placed the community’s fundraising efforts under the protection of Mary. Mary was so useful in answering their prayers that the Trinitarians freed thousands of Christians, as many as 140,000. In honour of Our Lady and her powerful intercession, St. John began using the title “Our Lady of Good Remedy.”

Today, the devotion remains popular throughout Europe and Latin America. The invocation of Our Lady of Good Remedy should remain a solid rock to turn to in times of uncertainty. We should cry out to our mother Mary not only for our immediate tensions and worries but also for the plight of her many children who continue to live in tumultuous areas across the world.

The protection of a caring mother is necessary for the spiritual and physical wellbeing of any human person. A mother gives life and bestows the essentials needed for survival to her child, and Mary offers spiritual life in abundance to all who approach her. 

These past months of living with COVID-19 have altered everyone’s way of life: from the nature of one’s job to schooling and social habits. Everything has been affected. This unexpected change has created incredible anxiety. Further uncertainty with the return to “normal life” aggravates our stress. 

Now more than ever, Catholics should turn to Mary for assistance and reassurance. Mary will help us recommit to what truly matters: finding our way to Jesus despite the circumstances we encounter.

Devotion to Mary is the surest path to Christ and is advocated by many of the saints, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Louis de Montfort and St. John Paul II among them. Mary knows what is best for her children even when they cannot see it themselves.

Christ is pleased rather than jealous of the love and devotion His followers show His mother. Mary is the most powerful intercessor in Heaven, and it would be foolish and impossible to wade through life without her motherly assistance. 

Our Lady of Good Remedy, intercede for us, may we always have recourse to you!

(Gay, 20, is a third-year student at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Barry’s Bay, Ont.)