Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), a canonised saint and a doctor of the Catholic church, wrote a booklet on prayers one should offer when they visit the “Blessed Sacrament” and tied such into prayers one should also offer to Mary, often in front of an image of her in the chapel:
Alphonsus Liguori, Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary (Rockford, Ill.: TAN Books, 2012)
While I have addressed Mariology in a book, Behold the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology, the following, apart from being the ill-effects of a very unbiblical Mariology, is also intimately tied into Eucharistic veneration and adoration (as I noted previously, I hope to write a book that touches upon, in part, Eucharistic theology and interact with non-LDS theologies thereon) as well as Mary being co-redemptrix and mediatrix of all graces:
Graces Obtained through Visits to The Blessed Virgin Mary
In Father Auriemma’s little book, Affetti Scambievoli (p. 2, c. 3), we read of innumerable favors granted by the Mother of God to those who practiced the most profitable devotion of often visiting her in her churches or before some image. We read of the graces which she granted in these visits to Blessed Albert the Great, to the Abbot Rupert, to Father Suarez—especially when she obtained for them the gif of understanding, by which they afterward became so renowned throughout the Church for their great learning. We read of the graces which she granted to the Venerable [now St.] John Berchmans of the Society of Jesus who was in the daily habit of visiting Mary in a chapel of the Roman College; he declared that he renounced all earthly love, to love no other after God than the Most Blessed Virgin, and he had written at the foot of an image of his beloved Lady: “I will never rest until I shall have obtained a tender love for my Mother.” We read also of the graces when she granted to Bernadine of Siena, who in his youth also went every day to visit her in a chapel near the city gate and declared that the Lady had ravished his heart. Hence he called her his beloved and said that he could not do less than visit her often; and by her means he afterward obtained the grace to renounce the world and to become what he afterward was, a great Saint and the apostle of Italy.
Do you, then, be also careful always to join to your daily visit to the Most Blessed Sacrament a visit to the most holy Virgin Mary in some church, or at least before a devout image of her in your own house. If you do this with tender affection and confidence, you may hope to receive great things from this most gracious Lady, who as St. Andrews of Crete says, always bestows great gifts on those who offer her even the last act of homage (In Dorm. B.V., s 3).
Mary, queen of Sweetest hope,
Who can e’er forget thee?
By thy mercy, by thy love,
Have pity, Queen, on me! (pp. xxiii-xxv)
Who can e’er forget thee?
By thy mercy, by thy love,
Have pity, Queen, on me! (pp. xxiii-xxv)
Prayer To Our Lady After Each Visit
Most holy Virgin Immaculate, my Mother Mary, it is to you, who are the Mother of My Lord, the Queen of the world, the advocate, the hope and the refuge of sinners, that I have recourse today, I, who most of all am deserving of pity. Most humbly do I offer you my homage, O great Queen, and I thank you for all the graces you have obtained for me until now, and particularly for having saved me from Hell, which, by my sins, I have so often deserved.
I love you, O most lovable Lady, and because of my love for you, I promise to serve you always and to do all in my power to win others to love you also. In your hands I place all my hopes; I entrust the salvation of my soul to your care. Accept me as your servant, O Mother of Mercy; receive me under your mantle. And since you have such power with God, deliver me from all temptations, or rather, obtain for me the strength to triumph over them until death. Of you I ask the grace of perfect love for Jesus Christ. Through help I hope to die a happy death. O my Mother, I beg you, by the love you bear to God, to help me at all times, but especially at the last moment of my life. Do not leave me, I beseech you, until you see me sae in Heaven, blessing you and singing your mercies for all eternity.
Amen, so I hope, so may it be. (pp. 3-4)
Our own most loving Lady, the whole Church declares you to be our hope and salutes you under that title. Since you are the hope of us all, be my hope too. T. Bernard called you the whole foundation of his hope and said: let him who is in despair, hope in Mary. And so will I too address you: My own Mary, you save even those who are in despair; in you I place all my hope. (p. 23)
Allow me, too, my most sweet Queen, to call you, with your own St. Bernard, the whole ground of my hope, and to say with St. John Damascene that I have placed all my hope in you. You must obtain for me the forgiveness of my sins, perseverance until death and deliverance from Purgatory. It is through you that all who are saved obtain their salvation. And so, O Mary, it is you who must save me. He whom you wish to be saved, will be saved. Only wish my salvation, and I shall be saved. You save all those who call on you. I am now calling on you and say to you:
Aspiration: O salvation of those who call on you, save me! (p. 46)
The saintly Bernadine de Bustis says: “Do not despair, O Sinner, but go with confidence to Our Lady. You will find her hands filled with grace and mercy.” “And remember,” he adds, “that is Queen, who is so full of sympathy, is more anxious to help and assist you than you yourself can be that she should do so.” O my Lady, I always thank God for having taught me about you. I should be unfortunate indeed if I did not know of you, or if I were to forget you. My very salvation would be in danger. O my Mother, I bless you, I love you. And so great is the confidence I have in you that I entrust my soul to your keeping.
Aspiration: O Mary, happy is the one who knows you and puts his trust in you! (p. 58)
My most gracious Lady and Mother, by committing sin I have rebelled against your Son. Btu I am sorry, and I appeal to your mercy to obtain forgiveness for me. Do not say that you have not the power. St. Bernard says that you are the mediatrix who obtains forgiveness for us. It is your duty to help those who are in the danger, for St. Ephrem calls you the helper of those in peril. And who, my Lady, is in greater danger than I? I have lost God and have certainly deserved Hell. I do not know if God has yet forgiven me. I may lose Him again. But you can obtain everything for me, and it is through you that I hope for every favor, for pardon, perseverance and paradise. I hope, in Heaven, to be among those of the blessed who will be loudest in praising your mercy because you will have saved me in your prayers.
Aspiration: I will sing the mercy of Mary for eternity. I will sing of it forever and ever. Amen. (pp. 68-69)
