Man is a being of remembrances. One look in our homes will immediately recall to our minds many things of the past that are close to our hearts. The walls are decorated with wedding photographs, trophies and framed laminated graduation diplomas of our children, souvenirs we have kept of our travels or those given us by friends from abroad.

From home we can also enter into our digital worlds of cell phones, PDAs, laptops and personal web sites. There we surf through waves of “remembrances” of digital photos, e-mails, music and videos. This constant habit of man of “keeping notes and pieces of the past” reveals his spiritual nature and heritage that is gradually unfolding towards the future. These are part and parcel of his “personal history”, without which he cannot step into a meaningful and fruitful tomorrow.

 Our memories of the past help us to live the present according to the truth we have learned about ourselves in the things and people that have come to pass. Likewise, the remembrances of the past serve to strengthen us with the hope of storing for the future of those we love and live for: our children and families.

In some way we all live with the intention of leaving behind some sort of remembrance of ourselves. It is something borne out of our sincere desire that others benefit from the good that we leave behind through some work, idea or spirit. And this is true of the men who have left an unforgettable mark in history: philosophers, doctors, architects, engineers, lawyers, businessmen, and many more.

In the spiritual life, however, the truth that stands before us and God is bluntly simple: that we are sinners. And it is difficult to imagine what our Lord can even consider worth remembering in us. Everything we have done and can do originates only from God’s goodness and mercy. There is nothing in our transitory existence that can last against God’s Eternity. And yet, He remembers.

“Lord, remember me when you enter into your kingdom!” These were the words of the good thief in Calvary. Despite the abysmal difference between our Lord’s innocence and the thief’s sins, God chooses to remember: “This day, you shall be with me in Paradise.” What is it that God values in our nothingness to remember?

Materially there is nothing in our finite condition that could ever fill in what is infinitely due to God’s nature. But spiritually, God looks forward to our disposition to empty ourselves of our pride and sin so that in our nothingness –our humble conversion– He can now fill us with Himself. This is what we witness in the lives of many holy men and women: the saints.

They were not persons who lived in order to leave us behind some material remembrances from them. It is true that we naturally desire, out of veneration, to have sacred objects and items associated with a particular saint. This is only to foster in us a constant piety and devotion to God through His “chosen ones”. But what the saints have genuinely left are not houses, things or books but a life identified with Christ that becomes a path for many towards Heaven.

In other words, they have allowed themselves –their entire life and ambitions– to become God’s “remembrances” for men here on earth. They are God’s tokens, witnesses that remind us constantly not only about heaven, but that we too are called to become saints, we too are called to become God’s remembrances here on earth.

It is in this light, confessing our nothingness, that I wish to recall to the reader a wonderful prayer that precisely asks God, through our Lady’s intercession, to “remember” us. It is called the Memorare, Latin for Remember.

A brief prayer that seems to have been part of a longer 15^th century prayer, “Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria”. The extracted part was popularized by Father Claude Bernard in the 17^th century, which is the apparent reason for misattributing it to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux who lived the 12^th century.

Whatever the true origins are, the prayer contains a valuable message that could help us not only ask our Lord through our Lady to “remember us”, but that they may constantly “remind us” that in our nothingness. It is our sincere awareness of being nothing that we tell God through our Mother, “I fly unto Thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother; to Thee do I come, before thee I kneel, sinful and sorrowful.” God has deigned to call us to be holy in His presence, so we can be His “remembrances” for men here on earth.

This wonderful Marian prayer is as follows:

Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary,

that never was it known that anyone who fled to Thy protection,

implored Thy help or sought Thy intercession,

was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence,

I fly unto Thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother;

to Thee do I come, before thee I kneel, sinful and sorrowful.

O Mother of the Word Incarnate,

despise not my petitions,

but in Thy clemency, hear and answer me.