Saturday before Ash Wednesday 2022 - Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners

On this final Saturday of Septuagesima, on the verge of the penitential season of Lent, I’d like to consider briefly one of the titles of Our Lady from the Litany of Loreto: Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners.

This title of Our Lady inspires confidence in us who are in need of God's mercy. As St. Louis Marie de Montfort says: "If we fear to go directly to Jesus Christ, our God, whether because of His infinite greatness, or because of our vileness, or because of our sins, let us boldly implore the aid and intercession of Mary, our Mother. She is good, She is tender, She has nothing in Her austere and forbidding, nothing too sublime and too brilliant. In seeing Her, we see our pure nature. She is not the sun, which by the brightness of its rays blinds us because of our weakness; but She is fair and gentle as the moon (Cant. 6:9), which receives the light of the sun, and tempers it to make it more suitable to our capacity" 

And yet, we know that God is merciful and full of compassion, so when we turn to Our Lady with that consoling title, "Refuge of Sinners," we see in Her one who loves the lost sheep, as God loves them. Our Lady loves us because God loves us. And she intercedes continually that not one of us may be lost. She is our refuge, our advocate, because God wants us to come to Him through Her, since every grace He gives us is given through Her hands. 

The tender arms of Our Lady are opened to all of us poor sinners, so much that St. Bonaventure said that "Mary embraces with motherly love even such a sinner as is despised by all the world, and ceases not to embrace him until he is reconciled with his Judge." 

As the members of the Church acknowledge our sins this Lent, we turn to our Lady, seeking refuge in the folds of her mantle, where we plead with our Mother to teach us how to repent well, to be reconciled well with God, to be open to the conversion God desires for us. 

Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, pray for us, that we may become worthy of the promises of Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.