O Sanctissima

O blessed Virgin Mary, who can worthily repay thee thy just dues of praise and thanksgiving, thou who by the wondrous assent of thy will didst rescue a fallen world? What songs of praise can our weak human nature recite in thy honor, since it is by thy intervention alone that it has found the way to restoration. Accept, then, such poor thanks as we have here to offer, though they be unequal to thy merits; and receiving our vows, obtain by thy prayers the remission of our offenses. Carry thou our prayers within the sanctuary of the heavenly audience, and bring forth from it the antidote of our reconciliation. May the sins we bring before Almighty God through thee, become pardonable through thee; may what we ask for with sure confidence, through thee be granted. Take our offering, grant us our requests, obtain pardon for what we fear, for thou art the sole hope of sinners. Through thee we hope for the remission of our sins, and in thee, O blessed Lady, is our hope of reward. Holy Mary, succour the miserable, help the fainthearted, comfort the sorrowful, pray for thy people, plead for the clergy, intercede for all women consecrated to God; may all who keep thy holy commemoration feel now thy help and protection. Be thou ever ready to assist us when we pray, and bring back to us the answers to our prayers. Make it thy continual care to pray for the people of God, thou who, blessed by God, didst merit to bear the Redeemer of the world, who liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen.

                                                                                                                                                                    Saint Augustine

At Christmas we remember the coming of God into our vale of tears as one of us.  The infinite magnitude of God’s love for us demonstrated by His willingness to share our birth and our death in order to free us from our sins.  Our attention is riveted on to the scene in a humble stable some two thousand years ago where Mary gave birth to our Savior.  One of the chief glories of Catholicism is that we have always remembered the love that God has for Mary, the Queen of Heaven, humanity’s sole boast.  Although it is not regarded as such, Christmas is truly the greatest of all Marian feasts.  Few hymns to Mary are more beautiful than O Sanctissima.

O Sanctissima, O Piissima
Dulcis Virgo Maria
Mater amata, Intemerata
Ora, Ora Pro Nobis

Tota pulchra es, O Maria
Et macula non est in te
Mater amata intemerata
Ora, ora pro nobis

Sicut lilium inter spinas
Sic Maria inter filias
Mater amata intemerata
Ora ora pro nobis

In miseria, in angustia
Ora Virgo pro nobis
Pro nobis ora in mortis hora
Ora, ora pro nobis

Tu solatium et refugium
Virgo Mater Maria
Quidquid optamus per te speramus
Ora, ora pro nobis