Dante's Prayer

That love whose warmth allowed this flower to bloom

within the everlasting peace – was love

rekindled in your womb; for us above,

you are the noonday torch of charity,

and there below, on earth, among the mortals,

you are a living spring of hope. Lady,

you are so high, you can so intercede,

that he who would have grace but does not seek

your aid, may long to fly but has no wings.

Your loving-kindness does not only answer

the one who asks, but it is often ready

to answer freely long before the asking.

In you compassion is, in you is pity,

in you is generosity, in you

is every goodness found in any creature.

Dante's Divine Comedy, 
Inferno - Par. XXXIII, 7-21

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This eloquent prayer to Mary recalls the very beginning of Inferno: in canto II, we learn that Virgil's appearance to Dante was ultimately made possible by the Virgin Mary. As the "noonday torch of charity," it was Mary's compassion that allowed her to notice Dante in his darkest days and initiate the journey that brought him to Heaven, that allowed him to "fly with no wings" to her feet. It should also be noted that Mary is one of the few positive female figures to appear in the Divine Comedy. So the fact that Dante prays to Mary at the end of his journey, when she originally prayed for him in Inferno, represents his coming full circle.

The Queen of Heaven, praying for Dante, by Gustave Doré