Will the Virgin Mary be there when I die?

Jesus does not come alone. He brings all the saints with him. Since the role of the saints and of the deceased’s relatives is to welcome the dying person and to gently witness the divine love to that soul, God chooses whom to send depending on the soul’s unique sensibility.

If the person is Catholic or Orthodox and is close to the Virgin Mary, she will be there. In many of her apparitions she has explicitely promised to assist at the time of their death those who will ask her. But she will leave if she is not wanted and instead she will send the mother or grandmother of the deceased.

In the case of a Protestant who distrusts the Mother of Jesus and the saints, the Virgin Mary stays in the background. Until the intelligence of the soul accepts the reality of the communion of saints, Mary respects their position and lets them call on the unique mediation of Jesus...(1)

(1) Excerpts from his book L'heure de la mort (The Hour of Death), Pages 33, 73-74, Editions Docteur Angélique

Adapted from an article by Arnaud Dumouch

Belgian Thomistic theologian and author