Mother Mary, Our Lady of China, Pray for Us

Holy Mary...Our Lady of China...

protect the Catholics In China

and All who seek 

Your divine prayers and Intercessions.

Amen.

Our Lady of China appeared near Peiping. It stands in a village named Tong Lu. A Poor Mission was started there by the Vincentian Fathers. It was a poor place, perhaps the poorest in the whole region, formerly called "the place of beggars." In 1900, there were some seven hundred Christians gathered about the little hamlet. Suddenly, the famous Boxer rebellion swept China and grew to such proportions, that even small places like Tong Lu could not escape its fury. In April 1900, a force of ten thousand rioters attacked Tong Lu. The soldiers, in senseless rage, started to shoot into the sky. Then suddenly they fled, frightened, and never came back again. According to the legend, a woman in white appeared above the settlement, and the rioters' bullets were aimed at her. When the apparition did not fade, attackers had not even time to reorganize because a strange horseman put them to flight. Soon after they had disappeared beyond the horizon. Father Wu, a Chinese priest, confessed to his flock that he invoked the help of Mary. A new church was built on the site and Father Wu placed a picture of Our Lady on the main altar. He asked the painter to dress Our Lady in the royal robes of the dowager Empress Tzi-Hsi. The image of the Blessed Virgin in the royal robes of the pagan Empress, with the Christ Child on her knees, is vivid expression of Chinese tradition. It is a shrine of the Mother and her Son. Though her robes be pagan, she belongs to every age, to all people and to every race. As was told and promised in the Old Testament: "I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge and of holy hope." 

Prayer to Our Lady of China

Hail, Holy Mary, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ,

Mother of all nations and all people.

You are the special heavenly Mother of the Chinese people.

Teach us your way of total obedience to God's will.

Help us to live our lives true to our faith.

Fill our hearts with burning love for God and each other.

Stir up in our youth an unconditional giving of self to the service of God.

We call on your powerful intercession for peace, reconciliation and unity among believers

and the conversion of the unbelievers in China and throughout the world,

for God's mercy is our only hope.

Our Lady of China, Mother of Jesus, hear our petitions and pray for us.

Amen.

Prayer Source: Daisy Y.Y. Lin, MD, MPH 

Imprimatur: Bishop William E. Lori, Bishop of Bridgeport Connecticut