The 15th August has been Mary’s day since the 5th century both in the East and West. Popes of the West in the 9th century put the Feast of the Assumption on a par with Christmas and Easter by adding various solemnities to it.
The recognized forms of prayer to Mary include the Hail Mary on the beads of the Rosary, and novenas of Rosaries. In the Catholic Church it is or was not customary to use any books as all the prayers were known off by heart.
Novenas
Novenas are prayed in preparation for a liturgical feast or as a petition for a divine favour. The prayers and petitions take place on nine consecutive days leading up to the feast day. The prayers consist of the Rosary and other prayers to saints and to Mary. The Hail Mary is prayed as decades on the Rosary beads and it concludes with Hail Holy Queen mother of mercy….. People usually gather in the church each day to pray, but you can also do it alone at home.
In the month of Mary which is May in the northern hemisphere and October in the southern hemisphere, people gather to pray the Rosary every day in the local church and each day they take a flower from their garden to add to the vase of flowers before her shrine as an offering. Hymns are sung to Mary on these occasions.
Mary is often invoked as one of her marian titles such as Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Walsingham, Our Mother of Perpetual Help, or Mary Untier of Knots. You have to invoke Mary untier of knots if your problems are difficult and knotted.
This mode of praying using Rosary beads and short prayers known off by heart along with Litanies of Saints is a normal form of prayer in the Catholic Church. However, its use is being more and more confined to small groups now.
Litanies
Litany is Greek for petition or supplication. Litanies were used for penitential processions. In a litany a member of the clergy leads the prayers invoking saints by name, to which the procession followers repy “Pray for us”. Articles of belief about God are also in the list to which the response is “have mercy on us”.
The Litany of Loreto is a litany to Mary which uses all the titles and symbols attributed to Mary by Catholics.
Mediatrix
Mediatrix is a title given to Mary. It rests on the belief that Christ gives graces through his mother Mary. Mary’s mediation is thought to be higher than that of the intercession of any other saint.
Historically the title of mediatrix came from St Ephraim (306-373) a Syrian theologian from Edessa. It was used by St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) a Franciscan bishop from Italy. The culmination of devotion to Mary and the imploring of her intercession came with Louis de Montfort (1673-1716), a French Catholic priest and Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), an Italian bishop.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) wrote in Summa Theologica that Jesus Christ is the only perfect mediator between God and human kind. Thomas Aquinas offered a much more moderate position than any of his contemporaries on many issues.
Mary Mediatrix of All Graces was promoted by the Marian visionary Emma de Guzman (born 1949) in the Philippines. This movement awaits Vatican approval not obtained yet. It seems extreme to say ‘all graces’ and in my experience not the case.
Merry and True 