"At a time of great sorrow, shortly before Christmas 1893, not knowing where to turn, fearing to be deceived by the devil, I placed myself completely in Her arms. I remembered Her Mother’s Heart of Perpetual Help, and I placed myself in Her hands like a child, as Her property, begging Her, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, to carry me as She carried You when You were a child, and to do with me not what I would wish, but what She Herself would wish for the greater glory of Her Son, according to His Will." Blessed Charles de Foucauld
This is the painting of Our Lady of Perpetual Help drawn by CHARLES DE FOUCAULD, from the original. He prayed often to Her under this title and put his first fraternity under her care as the Mother of Perpetual Help. He wrote the following prayer in 1896. (The original picture by Bl. Charles is kept in the little museum of the Poor Clare Nuns in in Nazareth.)
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+++++ My good Mother, Mother of Perpetual Help, to whom I confide and consecrate myself to you now as I did some years ago, you have helped me so much by faithfully guarding and leading me. My dearest Mother keep me always close to you in the presence of Jesus and Joseph. Grant me the constant help of your all-powerful assistance and the grace to ask of it unceasingly...
I give myself, I dedicate myself, I consecrate myself to you; I entrust myself to your care as a helpless little child; make me do whatever pleases you; I abandon myself to you like a baby in your arms; the only thing I ask of you is that I may do the will of your Son at every moment of my life so as to console His Heart as much as possible every moment of my life.
+St Charles de Foucauld 1858-1916
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