Good Counsel - Closing Prayer

 The Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel

On the Feast of St. Mark, April 25, 1467, at the close of a festival in Genazzano, Italy, a cloud descended upon an ancient 5th-century deteriorated church, dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel. When the cloud disappeared, the festive crowd found a small, fragile image of the Blessed Virgin and Child on a thin sheet of plaster. The painting is said to have hung in mid-air, suspended without support, floating, on a small ledge. This particular fresco is said to date to the time of the Apostles. It had long been venerated in Albania’s capital city, Scutari.

The Image of Our Lady of Good Counsel 
(Genazzano, Italy)

Much of the church of Our Lady of Good Counsel was destroyed in World War II, but the image remained intact and in place. The miraculous image is still there today after more than 500 years. Countless miracles have been attributed to the prayerful intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

Many pilgrims visit the church in Genazzano, and take part in the annual spring celebration, observed on April 25. Elsewhere in the world, the feast is celebrated on April 26.

"Our Lady of Good Counsel"

Catholic News Agency

As quoted in Abundant Life (Parish Bulletin)

April 25, 2021

Our Lady of Good Counsel (Plymouth, MI)
April 25, 2021 (World Day of Prayer for Vocations)

Prayer to Our Lady of Good Counsel

"Mother of Good Counsel" (Fresco)
Our Lady of Good Counsel (Plymouth, MI)

O Holy Virgin, to whose feet we are led by our anxious uncertainty in our search for and attainment of what is true and good, invoking you by the sweet title of Mother of Good Counsel, we beseech you to come to our assistance, when, along the road of this life, the darkness of error and of evil conspires towards our ruin by leading our minds and our hearts astray. 

O Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten the doubtful and the erring, that they be not seduced by the false appearances of good; render them steadfast in the face of the hostile and corrupting influences of passion and of sin. 

O Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us from your Divine Son a great love of virtue, and, in the hour of uncertainty and trial, the strength to embrace the way that leads to our salvation. If your hand sustains us, we shall walk unmolested along the path indicated to us by the life and words of Jesus, our Redeemer; and having followed freely and securely, even in the midst of this world's strife, the Sun of Truth and Justice under your maternal Star, we shall come to the enjoyment of full and eternal peace with you in the haven of salvation. 

Amen.

Pope Pius XII

(Pontiff from 1939 - 1958)

Be Thou my vision, Oh Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.

Thou my best Thought by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping--Thy presence, my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;

I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord!

Thou my great Father--Thy child I shall be;

Thou in me dwelling, and I one with Thee.

"Be Thou My Vision"

Hymns for Eventide

Salt of the Sound