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Chapter 47Ansl.1.47

ORATIO XLVIII [ol. XLVII]. AD SANCTAM VIRGINEM MARIAM.

A Prayer to the Virgin for Mercy and Salvation

The suppliant addresses the Blessed Virgin Mary, invoking her intercession for mercy, cleansing from sin, rescue from damnation, and a share in eternal blessedness among the saints.

Holy and glorious Mother of God, ever-virgin Mary, who were found worthy to bring forth the Savior for the world: hear me and have mercy on me, now and always, for the honor of your holy and most excellent virginity. I humbly beg you: be my savior and my helper before God almighty, so that he himself — the merciful shepherd and prince of peace — may cleanse me from the stains of my sins, rescue me from the darkness of hell, and lead me to eternal life.✦1 And may he who came into this world through you, most chaste virgin, and saved the human race by his own blood — who destroyed the bars of hell and opened the doors of the heavenly kingdom — may that one deign to save and preserve me through his mercy; and after the end of this fleeting life, may he grant me, through your prayers, some share of eternal blessedness in the fellowship of the saints.✦23

Read the original Latin

Sancta et gloriosa Dei genitrix, semperque virgo Maria, quae mundo meruisti generare Salvatorem, exaudi me et miserere mei nunc et semper propter honorem sanctae et excellentissimae virginitatis tuae. Te deprecor humiliter, esto mihi salvatrix et adjutrix apud Deum omnipotentem, ut ipse me pius pastor et princeps pacis a peccatorum meorum maculis emundet, et ab inferni tenebris eripiat, et ad vitam perducat aeternam. Et qui per te, castissima virgo, venit in hunc mundum, et humanum genus suo sanguine salvavit, et inferni claustra destruxit, et coelestis regni januas aperuit; ille me per misericordiam suam salvare et conservare dignetur; et post finem hujus vitae labentis, aliquam partem aeternae beatitudinis precibus tuis in sanctorum societate concedat.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Isa.9.6 — For the increase of his government and for peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
  2. ↩Rev.3.20;Isa.45.1-Isa.45.2 — Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to them and eat with them, and they with me. Isa.45.1 — Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: Isa.45.2 — I will go before you and level the exalted places; doors of bronze I will shatter, and bars of iron I will cut through.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩salvatrix (feminine 'saviour') rendered as 'savior' to preserve the Marian intercessory role; adjutrix similarly rendered as 'helper'
  2. 2 ↩vitae labentis rendered as 'fleeting life' to capture the participle's sense of slipping/passing away
  3. 3 ↩in sanctorum societate rendered as 'in the fellowship of the saints' — societas here carries the sense of communion/communion of saints

Orationes sive Meditationes — Collection for Princess Adeliza of Normandy companion

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