ORATIO L [ol. XLIX] AD SANCTAM VIRGINEM MARIAM. Cum recordatione peccatorum, ad excitandum torporem.
Mary's Power and Mercy
The soul praises Mary's unique holiness and affirms that her power and mercy are no less than her dignity.
Holy Mary, and among the saints uniquely holy after God, mother of admirable virginity, virgin of lovely fecundity, you who bore the Son of the Most High, you who brought forth the Savior for the lost human race — Lady, shining with such great holiness, surpassing in such great dignity — of this you may be certain: she is endowed with no lesser power and mercy.
A Wretched Soul Pleads for Healing
The soul, sick with sin and wounded by guilt, struggles to approach Mary for healing yet fears being repelled by its own filth.
To you, O mother of life, O mother of salvation, O temple of piety and of mercy — to you my wretched soul struggles to present itself, faint with the diseases of vice, torn with the wounds of crime, rotten with the sores of disgrace. To you it strives, as much as a dying soul is able, to entreat — that by your powerful merits and your merciful prayers you would deign to heal it. For so it is, merciful Lady — the soul has become estranged from itself by the enormity of its stupor, so that it scarcely has any sense of its own vast languor. So it is defiled by filth and stench that it fears lest the merciful face of yours be turned away from it. So it wastes away, despairing of the hope of your regard, that even its mouth falls silent when it should pray.
Sin's Cruel Accusation
The soul personifies its sins, asking how they have poisoned and deformed it, and laments the shame of uncleanness before Mary's purity.
My sins, my wicked ways — have you slain my soul with your poison? Or why do you make her so foul with your filth that pity itself cannot bear to look at her? If you overwhelm her hope of being heard with your crushing weight, or why do you block their voice of prayer with your shame? If you have made her mind mad with love, or why do you render her senses numb with torpor, feeling nothing? Alas, the shame of filthy iniquity in the presence of shining holiness! Alas, the confusion of an unclean conscience in the sight of radiant purity!
Longing and Shame Before Mary
The soul longs to beg Mary for pity yet blushes at its own uncleanness, caught between desire to be seen and horror at its state.
O you blessed above women, who conquer angels in purity and surpass the saints in piety — my dying spirit longs for a glance of such great kindness, but it blushes at the sight of such great splendor. I long to beg you, Lady — look with pity and heal the wounds and sores of my sins — but I'm ashamed before you because of their stench and filth. I shudder, Lady, to appear before you in my uncleanness and horrors — lest you shudder at me because of them — and yet I cannot, woe to me, be seen without them.
The Torment of Unconfessed Sin
The soul describes how its sins tear, burn, terrify, and crush it, and how confession is needed for healing yet feared for its shame.
O troubled, O confused state of sinfulness — see how you, my sins, tear my heart apart by ripping it to pieces, gnaw at it by wearing it down, and torment it by gnawing away at it! For these same sins of mine, O Lady, long to be known by you for their healing, yet flee from appearing before you because of their shamefulness: for they are not healed without confession, nor are they brought to light without shame. If they are hidden, they are incurable; if they are seen, they are detestable. They burn me with pain, they terrify me with fear. They overwhelm me with their weight, they press down on me with their burden, they shame me with their disgrace.
Mercy Greater Than Misery
The soul appeals to Mary's fountain of mercy, arguing that true misery calls for true mercy and that greater sin demands greater help.
O Mary, powerfully pious and piously powerful, from whom the fountain of mercy has sprung — I beg you, do not withhold true mercy where you recognize true misery. If I am ashamed in the obscenity of my wickedness before the brightness of your holiness, will you, Lady, blush toward the wretched affection of inborn piety?1 If I confess my wickedness, will you deny your kindness? If my misery is greater than is fitting for me, will your mercy be less than is fitting for you?2 For the more my sins are stained in the sight of God and yours, O Lady, the more they need his healing and your help.
Urgent Plea for Cleansing
The soul urgently begs Mary to heal its weakness, remove its stain, and act swiftly on its behalf.
Heal, then, my weakness, most merciful one, and you'll destroy the filth that offends you. Take away the sickness, most kind one, and you won't smell the stench you recoil from. Make it so, most holy one, that there's nothing to grieve over, and there'll be nothing to stain your purity.3 Act, Lady; hear me, Lady.
Healing Through Christ
The prayer concludes by asking Mary to heal the soul through the power of the blessed fruit of her womb, Christ, who reigns with the Father.
Heal the soul of this sinning servant of yours, through the power of the blessed fruit of your womb, who sits at the right hand of the almighty Father — his own — most praiseworthy and most glorious forever.
Read the original Latin
Sancta, et inter sanctos post Deum singulariter sancta, Maria, mater admirabilis virginitatis, virgo amabilis fecunditatis, quae Filium Altissimi genuisti, quae perdito humano generi Salvatorem peperisti, Domina praefulgens tanta sanctitate, supereminens tanta dignitate, quam utique certum est non minori praeditam esse potentia et pietate. Tibi, o genitrix vitae, o mater salutis, o templum pietatis et misericordiae, tibi sese conatur praesentare miserabilis anima mea, morbis vitiorum languida, vulneribus facinorum scissa, ulceribus flagitiorum putrida, tibi nititur quantum moribunda valet supplicare, ut potentibus tuis meritis et piis tuis precibus digneris eam sanare. Sic enim, pia domina, alienata est a se immanitate stuporis, ut vix sensum habeat enormis languoris. Sic sordibus et fetore foedatur, ut timeat ne ab ipsa misericors vultus tuus avertatur; sic tabescit desperando respectus tui conversionem, ut etiam os obmutescat ad orationem.
Peccata mea, nequitiae meae, si habetis animam meam vestro veneno peremptam; vel cur sic facitis eam vestra foeditate horrendam, ut miseratio non possit aspicere illam? Si obruitis ei spem exauditionis vestra mole, vel cur obstruitis illis vocem orationis vestri pudore? Si mentem ejus vestri fecistis amore dementem, vel cur sensum ejus vestro redditis torpore non sentientem? Heu pudor sordentis iniquitatis, in praesentia nitentis sanctitatis! Heu confusio immundae conscientiae, in conspectu fulgentis munditiae! O tu benedicta super mulieres, quae angelos vincis puritate, sanctos superas pietate; anhelat moribundus spiritus ad tantae benignitatis respectum; sed erubescit ad tanti nitoris conspectum. Rogare enim te, domina, desidero, ut miserationis tuae respectu cures plagas et ulcera peccatorum meorum; sed confundor coram te ob fetorem et sordes eorum. Horreo, domina, apparere tibi in immunditiis et horroribus meis, ne tu horreas me pro eis, et non possum, vae mihi, videri sine eis.
O perturbata o confusa peccandi conditio En quippe vos, peccata mea, quomodo discerpendo distrahitis, distrahendo corroditis, corrodendo torquetis praecordia mea? Eadem enim peccata mea, o Domina, cognosci a te cupiunt, propter curationem, apparere tibi fugiunt, propter exsecrationem: non enim sanantur sine confessione, nec produntur sine confusione. Si celantur, sunt insanabilia; si videntur, sunt detestabilia. Urunt me dolore, terrent me timore. Mole me obruunt, pondere me premunt, pudore me confundunt.
O tu, illa pie potens, et potenter pia Maria, de qua ortus est fons misericordiae, ne contineas, precor, tam veram misericordiam, ubi tam veram agnoscis miseriam. Si enim ego confundor in obscenitate iniquitatis meae ad fulgorem tuae sanctitatis, tune domina, erubesces erga miserum affectum insitae pietatis? Si ego confiteor nequitiam meam, tune abnegabis benignitatem tuam? Si major est miseria mea quam mihi expediat, eritne minor misericordia tua quam te deceat? Quanto enim, o domina, magis delicta mea in conspectu Dei et tuo sordent; tanto magis ejus curatione et tua subventione egent. Sana ergo, clementissima, infirmitatem; et delebis, quae te offendit, foeditatem. Aufer, benignissima, languorem, et non senties quem horres fetorem: fac, piissima, ut non sit quod doleat; et non erit quod sinceritati tuae sorde at. Fac, domina; exaudi me, domina.
Sana animam peccatoris servi tui, per virtutem benedicti fructus ventris tui, qui sedet in dextera omnipotentis Patris sui, superlaudabilis et supergloriosus in saecula.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin plays on the paradox that the sinner's shame before Mary's holiness should not make her turn away from the very piety she implanted. 'Affectum insitae pietatis' = the affection of piety inborn (in the speaker).
- 2 ↩Expediat/deceat carry a sense of what is proper or befitting. The argument: the greater the need, the greater the mercy owed — not by the sinner's merit but by Mary's nature.
- 3 ↩The final clause 'sorde at' is an archaic/subjunctive form meaning 'may it stain.' The ut-clause with subjunctive expresses purpose/result: 'so that nothing may stain your sincerity.'
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