Well, here’s something different.  It turns out that one of the top search terms on Google yesterday was “Virgin Maria Auxiliatrix.”  I’m not sure why, or what sparked this sudden Marian curiosity. 

But my blog neighbor here at Beliefnet Mark Heringshaw decided to do a little digging: 

My crash course understanding is that “Virgin Maria Auxiliatrix” is a kind of prayer – “Virgin Mary, Help.” Catholic Christians believe that Saints living in heaven – Mary chief among them – have close access to God. They say that while all Christians are invited to talk directly with God through Jesus, our prayers can be expedited by asking Christian saints to intercede on our behalf. Catholics don’t so much pray to Mary as ask for her assistance in boosting our prayers toward God.

Let me say again… I’m not Catholic. I’ve never yet directed a request to Mary or another deceased saint to intercede for me to God. I believe I have simple and direct access to God through Jesus and am invited to ask for help myself. I do this all the time and I believe I get answers all the time.

 But… I can see the point made by my Catholic brothers and sisters. Protestants sometimes accuse Catholics of “worshipping” Mary. Nothing could be further from truth. Catholics revere Mary, as the one human chose to bear the Son of God. That makes her very special by any Christian standard. By extension, if we do believe in heaven and that those who’ve gone ahead of us are, as the writer of Hebrews says, “Witnesses” watching our lives on earth, would it be possible to ask them to pray for us? After all, I ask friends to pray for me frequently, not because I don’t think God hears my own requests but because I figure the more prayers of agreement, the better. Why not include friends in heaven as well? As long as we recognize it’s God who delivers the help, shouldn’t anyone’s prayers to move him be welcome!

Well. I confess that “Virgin Maria Auxiliatrix” is a term I’ve never heard applied to Mary — and I’ve heard a lot of them. (Indeed, I’ve written at length about Mary’s own special connection to my own life.) But this is something new.

 Mary is commonly called the “Help of Christians” and “Our Lady of Perpetual Help” (in fact, that’s the name of the basilica where I was ordained.)  But this particular phrase is less of a title, more of a prayer — similar, really, to the “Jesus Prayer,” an expression of hope and trust and a petition for divine intercession. 

In many ways, this simple plea is the same every child asks of its mother.  Help me.  I can’t reach.  I can’t do it.  I’m afraid.  I’m too small.  Help!

Who knows how many times the savior of the world Himself turned to His mother with those  words?  

The woman who offered her hand to Him — to reach, to hold, to carry, to lift — offers it, as well, to the world.  “Virgin Mary, help” is the cry of all her children, reaching for that hand and reaching, as well, for hope.