Act of Dedication to the Virgin Mary
O Holy Mary, my Mother,
into your blessed trust and custody,
and into the care of your mercy
I this day, every day,
and in the hour of my death,
commend my soul and body.
To you I commit all my anxieties and miseries,
my life and end of my life,
that by your most holy intercession
and by your merits
all my actions may be directed
and disposed according to your will
and that of your Divine Son. Amen.
A Life Devoted to Christ
This young man was a saint among saints. He received his First Holy Communion from St. Charles Borromeo and, during his novitiate, his spiritual director was St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J. Born into distinguished nobility in Northern Italy, his father wanted him to become a soldier and enlisted the support of eminent church people to persuade his son to embrace the more “normal” vocation. But Aloysius was determined to enter religious life. Transferring his inheritance to his brother, he became a Jesuit. During the 1591 plague, the Jesuits opened a hospital. Aloysius contracted the disease while helping to nurse the poor and died several weeks later. In a letter to his mother shortly before his death, he reveals a steward’s understanding that everything, even death, is God’s gift: "When [God] takes away what he once lent us, his purpose is to store our treasures elsewhere more safely and bestow on us those very blessings that we ourselves would most choose to have." St. Aloysius Gonzaga pray that we love as you did.
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