Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt.
Tecum tutus semper sum.
Ad Jesum per Mariam
[ ] References in the text to numbered footnotes are not hyperlinked but may be found at the end of the relevant text.
Mary is the "Turris Davidica," the Tower of David
A tower in its simplest idea is a fabric for defence against enemies. David, King of Israel, built for this purpose a notable tower; and as he is a figure or type of our Lord, so is his tower a figure denoting our Lord's Virgin Mother.
She is called the Tower of David [1] because she had so signally fulfilled the office of defending her Divine Son from the assaults of His foes. It is customary with those who are not Catholics to fancy that the honours we pay to her interfere with the supreme worship which we pay to Him; that in Catholic teaching she eclipses Him. But this is the very reverse of the truth.
For if Mary's glory is so very great, how cannot His be greater still who is the Lord and God of Mary? He is infinitely above His Mother; and all that grace which filled her is but the overflowings and superfluities of His incomprehensible Sanctity. And history teaches us the same lesson. Look at the Protestant countries which threw off all devotion to her three centuries ago, under the notion that to put her from their thoughts would be exalting the praises of her Son. Has that consequence really followed from their profane conduct towards her? Just the reverse—the countries, Germany, Switzerland, England, which so acted, have in great measure ceased to worship Him, and have given up their belief in His Divinity while the Catholic Church, wherever she is to be found, adores Christ as true God and true Man, as firmly as ever she did; and strange indeed would it be, if it ever happened otherwise. Thus Mary is the "Tower of David."[
[1] [4] Thy neck, is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men.
Sicut turris David collum tuum, quae aedificata est cum propugnaculis; mille clypei pendant ex ea, omnis armatura fortium. [Cant of Canticles 4]
A tower of strength in times of war
The scene for warfare between good and evil was set in Genesis with a prophecy and a promise.[15] I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.The 'woman' is Mary and her seed is firstly, the Saviour of Mankind; and secondly her faithful children in the one, true Church. The prophecy is reinforced centuries later:
Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem, et semen tuum et semen illius : ipsa conteret caput tuum, et tu insidiaberis calcaneo ejus. [Gen 3]
[9] Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?
Quae est ista quae progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata? [Cant of Canticles 6
The Church has many references to Mary in her role as a heroine or champion against the seed of Satan:
Dignare me laudare te, Virgo sacrata:
da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos.
Let me praise thee, O sacred Virgin:
Give me strength against thine enemies. [Antiphon, Matins, The Little Office]
Pulchra es et decora filia Jerusalem terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata
Thou art fair and comely, O daughter of Jerusalem: terrible as an army set in array. [Antiphon, Lauds, The Little Office]
[9] Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?
Quae est ista quae progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata? [Cant of Canticles 6,Prime, The Little Office]
Maria, Mater gratiae,
Mater misericordiae,
tu me ab hoste protege
et hora mortis suscipe. Amen.
Mary, Mother of Grace,
Mother of mercy,
Shield me from the enemy
And receive me at the hour of my death.Amen. [Hymn, Terce, The Little Office]
Historical examples
Here are some historical examples taken from the Divine Office:
Against the Albigensian heretics
When the heresy of the Albigenses was making head against God in the County of Toulouse, and striking deeper roots every day, the holy Dominic, who had but just laid the foundations of the Order of Friars Preachers, threw his whole strength into the travail of plucking these blasphemies up. That he might be fitter for the work, he cried for help with his whole soul to that Blessed Maiden, whose glory the falsehoods of the heretics so insolently assailed, and to whom it hath been granted to trample down every heresy throughout the whole earth. It is said that he had from her a word, bidding him preach up the saying of the Rosary among the people, as a strong help against heresy and sin, and it is wonderful with how stout an heart and how good a success he did the work laid upon him. [Divine Office, Matins, Beatæ Mariæ Virginis a Rosario]At Lepanto, against the Muslim Turks
From this healthy exercise have grown up numberless good fruits in the Christian Commonwealth. Among these deserveth well to be named that great victory over the Sultan of Turkey, which the most holy Pope Pius V, and the Christian Princes whom he had roused, won at Lepanto, (on the 7th day of October, the first Lord's Day in the month, in the year of our Lord 1571) The day whereon this victory was gained was the very one whereon the Guildbrethren of the most holy Rosary, throughout the whole world, were used to offer their accustomed prayers and appointed supplications, and the event therefore was not unnaturally connected therewith. This being the avowed opinion of Gregory XIII, he ordered that in all Churches where there was, or should be, an Altar of the Rosary, a Feast, in the form of a Greater Double, should be kept for ever upon the first Lord's Day of the month of October, to give unceasing thanks to the Blessed Virgin, under her style of (Queen of) the (Most Holy) Rosary, for that extraordinary mercy of God. [Divine Office, Matins, Beatæ Mariæ Virginis a Rosario]1716: Against the Muslim Turks
In the year 1716, Charles VI, Elect-Emperor of the Romans, won a famous victory over countless hordes of Turks, near Timisoara, in the kingdom of Hungary, upon the day when the Feast of the Dedication of the Church of St. Mary of the Snows was being kept, and almost at the very moment when the Guild-brethren of the most holy Rosary were moving through the streets of Rome in public and solemn procession, amid vast multitudes, all filled with the deepest enthusiasm, calling vehemently upon God for the defeat of the Turks, and entreating the Virgin Mother of God to bring the might of her succour to the help of the Christians. A few days later, (upon the Octave of the Feast of the Assumption,) the Turks raised the siege of Corfu. These mercies Clement XI devoutly ascribed to the helpful prayers of the Blessed Virgin, and that the memory and the sweetness of such a blessing might for all time coming endure gloriously, he extended to the whole Church the observance of the Feast of the most holy Rosary, for the same day and of the same rank, (as it had already been in the places before mentioned.) Benedict XIII commanded the record of all these things to be given a place in the Service-book of the Church of Rome; and Leo XIII, in the most troublous times of the Church and the cruel storm of long pressing evils, by fresh Apostolic letters vehemently urged upon all the faithful throughout the earth the often saying of the Rosary of (the Blessed Virgin) Mary, raised the dignity of the yearly festival, added to the Litany of Loretto the Invocation Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and granted to the whole Church a special Office for this solemn occasion. [Divine Office, Matins, Beatæ Mariæ Virginis a Rosario]
Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt.
Tecum tutus semper sum.
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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