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Chapter 48Ansl.1.48

ORATIO XLIX [ol. XLVIII]. AD EAMDEM DEI MATREM.

A Sinner's Shame Before the Virgin

The suppliant confesses his defilement and lost innocence before Mary's unparalleled purity, expressing deep compunction and desperation, yet turning to her as his only refuge and consolation.

Mary, mother and virgin, alone without example in the merit that is yours, whom God kept unviolated in mind and body, so that you would be worthy to be the one from whom the Son of God might fashion a body for himself, the price of our redemption: I beseech you, most merciful one, through whom the whole world has been saved, intercede for me, the most wretched, defiled as I am by all my iniquities, so that even now the Lord may grant to my unhappy soul a love of purity, a longing for cleanness, and a steady practice of chastity. For I — I, the unhappy one — I have lost the grace of all innocence, of all holiness; I have violated the holy temple of God in many ways.✦ But what am I doing, recounting my obscenities to ears that have never been defiled? I shudder, Lady, I shudder; and with my conscience accusing me, I stand exposed before you in my wretchedness and blush. To whom indeed, as I am dying, could I offer my wound? To whom shall I go, and with whom shall I pour out my grief, or when could I hope for healing from any other source, if that one refuge of eternal mercy is closed to me? Hear me, then, Lady — hear me with favor, hear me and listen to your lost citizen, one who shares the lot of your inheritance, now returning to the breasts of your consolation after long exile, after long sighs, after cruel mockery, after many sufferings.✦

Mary, Mother of Mercy

Recalling Mary's self-revelation as Mother of Mercy to a dying servant, the suppliant piles up her titles and appeals to her maternal compassion, arguing from Christ's own brotherhood and the sword that pierced her soul that she cannot abandon her sinful orphans.

I remember — and it is a joy to remember — how, to commend your one and only protection to the wretched, you revealed your memorable name to a certain servant of yours who was at the point of death. For when he appeared to that person — who was in distress — and asked whether he recognized you, and that person, trembling, barely answered at all, 'Lady,' you said to him, in your kindness, how gently, how intimately you, Lady, spoke: I am the mother of mercy. So before whom should the wretched, before whom should the forsaken groan and lament, bewailing the evils of all our calamity and misery, if not before you, the true and undoubted mother of mercy? Holy mother, only mother, immaculate mother, incorrupt mother, mother of mercy, mother of piety and of indulgence: open your bosom of piety, and receive one who is dead in his sins.✦ Look, Lady: the prodigal son, naked and his feet bruised, from a place of horror, from the cloud of filth and stench, sighs, cries out, and calls upon his mother — not forgetful of how often you cherished him, covered him, and spoke in his defense before the Father.✦ And indeed, that most devout and most kind father — you are so sweet and so gentle a mother. Recognize your children, blessed one, whom your uniquely beloved only-begotten Son was not ashamed to call his brothers.✦ And if for that innocent crucified Son of yours a sword pierced your soul, how can you hold yourself back from your orphans dead in sin — how could you ever, Lady, restrain your maternal weepings and tears?✦

Rise Up and Intercede

Describing the sinners' helpless captivity, the suppliant urgently calls Mary to rise and enter the sanctuary of God's hearing, confident that through her mediation their prayers will be accepted and the Judge's anger appeased by the merits of the one who bore him.

We are dragged away, torn apart, and held captive; there is no one to rescue us, no one to ransom us — no one to rise up at dawn and pledge himself on our behalf. Rise up, gracious one; rise up, merciful one — enter the sanctuary of hearing, and stretch out your stainless hands before that golden altar of human reconciliation.1 Through you what we bring before God will be obtainable; through you what we fear will be excusable.2 Nor could she bear for long to have you pleading for us — you, sweet mother, who have so often comforted the wailing child.3 Whose merits, then, are more powerful at appeasing the anger of the Judge than yours — you who deserved to be the mother of that same Redeemer and Judge?4 Do not doubt, my lady — for he himself is my mouth and my flesh, my salvation and my glory, he himself our head; he himself knew our frame.5

Litany and Eschatological Hope

In a litany of exalted titles, the suppliant invokes Mary's aid for the lost, prays that through her merits they may receive whatever bridal garment they can, and humbly hopes at least to witness from afar her heavenly processions following the Lamb.

Glory of virgins, lady of nations, queen of angels, fountain of gardens, cleansing of sins, holy and perpetual virgin Mary — come to the aid of this wretched one, help this lost soul; so that those who now — alas, the grief! —✦✦ No one even dares to hope for that angelic, virginal robe; but through your glorious merits, may they receive whatever bridal garment they can.✦ And so, if I will not deserve — no, because I will not deserve — to draw closer and take part in your flower-bearing, fragrant choirs of glory, then at least, placed at a distance and standing far off, may I deserve to see and to hear your processions, your tambourines, your songs, and whatever that glory and exultation will be when you dance following the Lamb wherever he goes.✦

The Sweet Name and Final Trust

At the prayer's close, the suppliant asks for an everlasting remembrance of Mary's sweet name as his soul's nourishment, requests her presence in every circumstance, and expresses absolute confidence that even from hell she will seek and restore him to her Son, concluding with a trinitarian doxology.

Singular virgin, highest and perpetual virgin, sole mother and virgin, holy Mary, at the close of my prayer, at the end of this unworthy and pitiful petition, this one thing I ask, this one thing I pray and implore in the name of your beloved Son: grant to me, a wretched soul, a constant and everlasting remembrance of your most sweet name. Let your name be the sweetest food, the most pleasant nourishment for my soul. Be present to me in dangers, be present in distress, be present at the beginning of my joy. For if I deserve to obtain this gift of God and yours, I certainly do not fear — by no means, never utterly — that I will perish. For your grace will always be present to me; your compassion and your protection will be present. And even if I have been sunk down into hell, you will seek me out there, and from there you will draw me out, and you will restore me to your Son, who redeemed me and washed me in his own blood — Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God.✦✦

Read the original Latin

Singularis meriti, sola sine exemplo, mater et virgo Maria, quam Deus ita mente et corpore inviolatam custodivit, ut digna existeres, ex qua sibi nostrae redemptionis pretium Dei Filius corpus aptaret: obsecro te, misericordissima, per quam totus salvatus est mundus, intercede pro me miserrimo et cunctis iniquitatibus foedato, ut vel jam donet Dominus infelici animae meae amorem puritatis, affectum munditiae, tenorem castitatis. Ego enim, ego infelix, ego totius innocentiae, totius sanctimoniae gratiam perdidi; ego templum Dei sanctum multipliciter violavi. Sed quid ago, obscenitates meas referens auribus illibatis? Horresco, domina, horresco; et arguente me conscientia, male nudus coram te erubesco. Cui vero moribundus offeram vulnus meum? Ad quem ibo, et apud quem deplorabo dolorem meum, aut quando aliunde sperem beneficia sanitatis, si mihi clauditur illud unicum reclinatorium aeternae pietatis? Audi ergo, domina, audi propitia, audi et exaudi civem perditum de sorte haereditatis tuae post longa exsilia, post longa suspiria, post saeva ludibria, post multa supplicia, revertentem ad ubera consolationis tuae.

Memini et meminisse delectabile est, qualiter ad commendandum miseris unicum patrocinium tuum, cuidam tuo servo agenti in extremis revelasti memorabile nomen tuum. Apparens enim ei, cum esset in angustiis, et requirens utrum te agnosceret, cum ille, minime, domina, tremens responderet, tu ei pro benignitate tua quam blande, quam familiariter tu, domina, dixisti: Ego sum misericordiae mater. Apud quem ergo miseri, apud quem desolati rectius ingemiscimus deplorantes mala totius calamitatis et miseriae nostrae, quam apud te veram et indubitatam matrem misericordiae? Mater sancta, mater unica, mater immaculata, mater incorrupta, mater misericordiae, mater pietatis et indulgentiae, aperi sinum pietatis et suscipe mortuum in peccatis. Ecce, domina, filius prodigus, nudus et attritus pedibus, de loco horroris, de nebula immunditiae et fetoris suspirat, clamat, et appellat matrem non immemor quoties eum foveris, texeris, excusaveris apud Patrem. Et quidem ille piissimus atque benignissimus pater, tu tam dulcis et suavis mater. Agnosce, benedicta, filios tuos quos unice dilectus unigenitus tuus non erubuit nominare fratres suos. Et si pro illo innocente filio tuo crucifixo pertransivit gladius animam tuam, quomodo super mortuis in peccato pupillis tuis te continere; quomodo unquam maternis fletibus et lacrymis, o domina, poteris temperare?

Abstrahimur, diripimur, captivamur; non est qui eruat, non est qui redimat, qui consurgat diluculo et spondeat pro nobis. Surge, pia; surge, propitia; intra sacrarium exauditionis, et expande manus immaculatas ante altare illud aureum humanae reconciliationis. Erit per te impetrabile quod per te ingerimus, erit per te excusabile quod timemus. Nec diu poterit te sustinere pro nobis supplicantem, quem tu saepissime consolata es, dulcis mater, infantem vagientem. Quae ergo potentior meritis ad placandam iram judicis, quam tu quae meruisti mater esse ejusdem Redemptoris et judicis? Ne dubites, domina mea; ipse enim est os meum et caro mea, salutare meum et gloria mea, ipse caput nostrum, ipse cognovit figmentum nostrum.

Decus virginum, domina gentium, regina angelorum, fons hortorum, ablutio peccatorum, sancta et perpetua virgo Maria, succurre misero, subveni perdito; ut qui jam, proh dolor! non audet angelicam illam sperare stolam virginalem; tuis, gloriosa, meritis qualemcunque recipiat vestem nuptialem. Denique, et si non merebor, imo quia non merebor vicinius accedere atque interesse florigeris atque odoriferis gloriae vestrae choris; eminus saltem positus et longe constitutus videre merear et audire processus vestros, tympana vestra, concentus vestros, et quidquid illud gloriae et exsultationis erit, quando tripudiabitis sequentes agnum quocunque ierit.

Singularis virgo, summa et perpetua virgo, sola mater et virgo, sancta Maria, in fine orationis meae, in extremo hujus fatuae supplicationis indignus hoc unum rogo, hoc unum precor et obsecro in nomine dilecti filii tui, dona mihi misero jugem et perennem memoriam suavissimi nominis tui. Sit cibus dulcissimus, cibus suavissimus animae meae. Adsit mihi in periculis, adsit in angustiis, adsit in principio laetitiae meae. Si enim hoc Dei dono et tuo mereor obtinere, nullatenus certe, nunquam funditus vereor interire. Aderit enim semper mihi gratia tua, aderit miseratio et protectio tua. Et si in infernum demersus fuero, eo me requires, et inde me extrahes, et reddes filio tuo, qui me redemit et lavit sanguine suo, Jesu Christo Domino nostro, qui cum Patre et Spiritu sancto vivit et regnat Deus.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1Cor.6.19 — Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? And you are not your own,
  2. ↩Luke.15.20 — And he got up and went to his own father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
  3. ↩Eph.2.1 — And you, though dead in your trespasses and sins,
  4. ↩Luke.15.20 — And he got up and went to his own father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
  5. ↩Heb.2.11 — For both the one who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all from one; for this reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers.
  6. ↩Luke.2.35 — and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
  7. ↩Song.4.12 — A garden locked, my sister, bride; a spring locked, a fountain sealed.
  8. ↩Ps.51.2;Acts.22.16 — Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Acts.22.16 — And now, why do you delay? Rise and be baptized, washing away your sins, calling on his name.
  9. ↩Matt.22.11-Matt.22.14;Rev.19.8 — But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding garment. Matt.22.12 — "And he says to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Matt.22.13 — Then the king said to his servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' Matt.22.14 — For many are called, but few are chosen. Rev.19.8 — And it was granted to her that she be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure—for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
  10. ↩Rev.14.4 — These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among mankind as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
  11. ↩Ps.138.8 — The LORD will accomplish what concerns me. O LORD, your steadfast love endures forever; do not forsake the work of your hands.
  12. ↩Rev.1.5 — and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth — to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,

Notes

  1. 1 ↩sacrarium exauditionis: literally 'sanctuary of hearing,' a figurative space of attentive divine reception; rendered to keep the spatial metaphor.
  2. 2 ↩impetrabile / excusabile: the prayer plays on the parallelism of what is obtained and what is excused through Mary's mediation; kept in balanced English.
  3. 3 ↩Nec diu poterit te sustinere: the subject is left implicit in Latin; contextually it is the Virgin herself who cannot long endure holding back while her child pleads.
  4. 4 ↩ergo: inferential connective rendered as 'then' to draw the conclusion from the preceding appeal.
  5. 5 ↩Cf. Psalm 138:14 (Vulg. 137:14) for the language of God knowing our frame; the Latin echoes the psalm but is not a direct quotation, so left as an allusion candidate.

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