Mary, Our Mother

A Meditation on Mary with Ignatius of Loyola

From his early years, Ignatius had a sense of the presence of Mary. His writings present Mary as the one who conducts him into the presence of the Trinity.

Opening prayer: “God, you gave the Virgin Mary a share in the passion of your Son and in the glory of his resurrection. Turn our eyes to look on [Christ] so that we may seek [the reign of God] on earth and enter into everlasting life, to be one with Mary, our Mother. We ask this through Christ.”

(“Prayer over the Gifts,”in Supplement to the Missal and Lectionary for the Society of Jesus, p. 15)

About Ignatius

As a young man, Ignatius dreamed of a woman for whom he would do anything. He wrote in his autobiography,

Of the many vain things that presented themselves to him, one took such a hold on his heart that he was absorbed in thinking about it for two or three or four hours without realizing it: he imagined what he would do in…