ORATIO LVII [ol. LVI]. AD SANCTAM VIRGINEM MARIAM. In Annuntiatione ejus.
Invocation Through the Angelic Greeting
The suppliant prays to the Virgin through the merits of her Annunciation and Gabriel's angelic greeting, asking her to receive their prayers.
I pray you, sweetest Virgin, through the merits of your most wholesome Annunciation, and through that angelic greeting you received from Gabriel — the holy messenger of your salvation, the messenger of the Incarnation of the divine Word, the messenger of eternal life, the messenger of our salvation through you — that you may receive our prayers.✦
Confession and the Fullness of Grace
Acknowledging great sin yet greater grace, the speaker addresses Mary with the scriptural words of Gabriel and Elizabeth, confessing her blessedness.
Most merciful Lady, great are my sins, but greater is your grace; for you are full of grace, and the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.✦
The Annunciation as Pattern of Forgiveness
The suppliant asks that just as Mary's Annunciation ended old guilt and promised grace for all who awaited it, so its remembrance may abolish all guilt and bestow saving chastity.
Mother of all grace, pray for me: just as your Annunciation, as its end drew near, became the end of old guilt and the hope of promised grace — and for all who awaited it in truth, it was the origin and the way of the grace to come — so may the remembrance of that same Annunciation of yours, pondered in my heart to the honor of your joy and spoken upon my lips, become in me the end and the abolition of all my guilt, old and new, and the grace of abiding, saving chastity.
Petition for Healing and a Life of Holiness
Calling on Mary as hope and comfort, the speaker asks for remedy from weakness, joy from grief, and the grace to live in chastity, humility, faith, and goodness, exulting in God the Savior.
Help me, my Lady — hope of the living and comfort of the sorrowful, helper of the needy, compassionate toward all — so that I, who acknowledge my guilt through the very scourges of grief and sadness and weakness, may through your mercy deserve to obtain, through the joys of your most holy Annunciation, remedy from weakness and joy from grief; and that from now on, in profitable sorrow, in the chastity of heart and body, in humility of mind, in the integrity of faith, and in every goodness, I may strive to please God, and my spirit may exult in God my Savior, in every season of my life.✦
Final Plea and Doxology
The prayer closes with a brief cry to the Holy Mother of God for aid and intercession, sealed with Amen.
Holy Mother of God, come to my aid and intercede with your sweet child on behalf of me, a sinner. Amen.
Read the original Latin
Precor te, Virgo dulcissima, per merita tuae saluberrimae annuntiationis, et per illud angelicum ave, quod accepisti a sancto Gabriele nuntio salutis tuae, nuntio Incarnationis Verbi divini, nuntio vitae aeternae, nuntio salutis nostrae per te, ut accipias preces nostras. Misericordissima domina, magna sunt peccata mea, sed major est gratia tua; quia tu es gratia plena, et Dominus tecum est; benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui. Mater totius gratiae, ora pro me, ut sicut annuntiatio tua finis appropinquans exstitit veteri culpae, spes autem promissae gratiae, et omnibus exspectantibus eam in veritate origo et via fuit gratiae futurae; ita a me in honorem tui gaudii corde recogita, ore pronunciata ejusdem annuntiationis tuae recordatio fiat in me finis et abolitio totius culpae meae veteris ac novae, et gratia salutaris jugis castimoniae. Adjuva me, domina mea, spes viventium, et consolatio moestorum, subventrix inopum, miseratrix omnium, ut qui culpam meam per ipsa flagella moeroris et tristitiae et infirmitatis agnosco; per gaudia tuae sanctissimae annuntiationis de infirmitate remedium, et de moerore gaudium tua misericordia consequi merear; ut in utili moerore, in castimonia cordis et corporis, in humilitate mentis, in fidei integritate, et omni bonitate studeam de caetero placere Deo, et exsultet spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo omni tempore vitae meae. Sancta Dei Genetrix, succurre et intercede apud dulcem natum tuum pro me peccatore. Amen.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.1.28 — And coming to her, he said, 'Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.'
- ↩Luke.1.28;Luke.1.42 — And coming to her, he said, 'Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.' Luke.1.42 — And she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
- ↩Luke.1.47 — and my spirit rejoiced in God my Savior
Orationes sive Meditationes — Collection for Princess Adeliza of Normandy companion
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