Every year, the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary has been, since the wish of King Louis XIII, the occasion for a prayer for France. Here is the prayer for 2024.
Lord our God, on this blessed day of the Assumption, we give you thanks for the Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, the Savior of the world. We bless you for the part you reserved for her with You at the end of her earthly life. Her Assumption shows us the greatness of our own dignity since we believe that all of us, body and soul, are also called to share in Your Glory.
Through the intercession of Our Lady, we ask you to help Christ’s disciples to be witnesses of human dignity. Grant that they may remain attentive and available to the most fragile or vulnerable people and especially, in this summer season, the elderly or the sick, who often suffer from loneliness.
As the issue of an end-of-life law returns to the forefront, we pray to you for our leaders: give them a keen awareness of the inalienable greatness of all life, from its beginning to its natural end, so that we are never forced to ask ourselves who is worthy of living and who is not.
Amen.
For the record, extract from the vow of Louis XIII of February 10, 1638
We have declared and do declare that, taking the most holy and glorious Virgin as the special protector of our Kingdom, we consecrate to her particularly our Person, our State, our Crown and our subjects, imploring her to wish to inspire us with such holy conduct, and to defend with such care this kingdom against the efforts of all its enemies, that whether it suffers the scourge of war, or enjoys the sweetness of peace that we ask of God with all our heart, it does not depart from the paths of grace which lead to those of glory.
