The paradise of the Christian soul/Chap. VI. Various Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mother of God.
CHAPTER VI.
Various Prayers
TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD.
PRAYER OF S. BERNARD TO MARY THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD.
O Mother of mercy! I pray that, through thee, I may have access to thy Son; and that he, who through thee was given to us, may also receive us through thee. May thy incorruption excuse in his sight the guilt of our corruption; and may thy humility that is so pleasing to God, obtain pardon for our vanity and pride.
May thy abundant charity cover the multitude of our sins, and thy glorious fruitfulness confer on us fruitfulness in merits. O our Lady, recommend us to thy Son! O our Mediatress, reconcile us to thy Son! O our Advocate, plead for us to thy Son!
By the grace, O blessed Lady, which thou hast merited by him who is Mercy, whom thou hast brought forth, obtain for us that he who, by thy mediation, vouchsafed to become partaker of our infirmity and misery, may also, by thy intercession, make us partakers of his goodness and glory, Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who is above all blessed for ever.
PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, TOGETHER WITH THE BLESSED EVANGELIST ST. JOHN.
O inviolate and for ever blessed! O illustrious and incomparable Mary, Virgin Mother of God, and most acceptable Temple of God, Shrine of the Holy Ghost, Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven, through whom, next after God, lives all the world! Incline, O Mother of Mercy, thy bountiful ears to my unworthy supplications, and be in all things a kind and gracious helper to me, a most miserable sinner.
O John! most blessed friend and intimate associate of Christ, who by the same our Lord Jesus Christ wert chosen a virgin, both beloved more than the rest, and beyond all others experienced in heavenly mysteries, for thou becamest his most illustrious Apostle and Evangelist; thee, too, I invoke, together with Mary the Mother of the same Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, that with her thou wouldst vouchsafe to give me thy help.
O Mary and John, ye two celestial gems! O ye two shining lamps, divinely burning before God! chase away with your bright beams the clouds of my sins! For ye are the twain to whom, for the merit of your most pure virginity, the only - begotten Son of God confirmed the privilege of his love while hanging on the Cross, in saying to one of you: Woman, behold thy son! and then to the other: Behold thy Mother!
Therefore, in the sweetness of so sacred a love as that by which you were then, by the Lord’s mouth, joined together as mother and son, I, a most miserable sinner, this day recommend to both of you my body and my soul; that every hour and moment of my life you may vouchsafe to be, both inwardly and outwardly, my constant guardians, and my gracious intercessors with God. Implore, for me, I beseech you, the salvation both of my body and my soul.
Cause, I beseech you, cause by your glorious prayers, that the Holy Spirit, the perfect Giver of all graces, may vouchsafe to visit my heart, and dwell in it; and so cleanse me from all filthiness of sin, so beautify and adorn me with holy virtues, as to cause me to stand perfect, and to persevere to the end in the love of God and of my neighbour; and, this life ended, to bring me to the joys of his Elect; even the same most gracious Paraclete, who, with the Father and the Son, lives and reigns world without end. Amen.
RECOMMENDATION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
O Holy Mary, Lady mine! I recommend myself, soul and body, to thy blessed trust and special custody, and to the bosom of thy mercy, this and every day, and at the hour of my death: I commit to thee all my hope and consolation, all my distresses and sorrows, my life and my life’s end, that by thy most holy intercession, and by thy merits, all my works may be ordered and disposed according to thy will and the Will of thy Son.
PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY FOR A HAPPY DEATH.
O most sweet Mother of Jesus! Virgin Mary, my patroness! full of the bowels of mercy, help me, a wretched sinner, before a sudden and unforeseen death overtake me; that I may not pass out of this world suddenly and unprepared. Pray for me, blessed Virgin Mary, for the most bitter Passion and Death of thy only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, that I may pass out of this world reconciled to Him, in detestation of all sin, in the renunciation of the devil and all his works, with true contrition, with sincere and humble confession, penitence, and satisfaction, worthy of acceptance with God, and in full charity with my neighbour.
Deal mercifully with me, O blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in that dreadful hour when the breath of life shall fail me, and my tongue be powerless to invoke thee, and my eyes to see the light, and my ears to hear any voice; remember, then, in that last sad hour of my need, O Mary, the prayers which I now pour into thy gracious ears, that I may be delivered from the ministers of Satan, and be set among the faithful of Christ, the servants and friends of thy Son. Amen.
ANOTHER PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
I implore thee, holy Lady, Mary, Mother of God, most full of pity, daughter of the most high King, most glorious Mother, Mother of orphans, comfort of the desolate, way of the wanderers, salvation of all that hope in thee, virgin before the birth of thy Son, virgin in his birth, and virgin after his birth, fountain of mercy, fountain of grace and salvation, fountain of consolation and pardon, fountain of love and joy, fountain of life and forgiveness; by the holy and unspeakable gladness with which thy spirit exulted in the hour in which the Son of God was announced to thee by Gabriel the Archangel, and was conceived by thee.
And by the holy and unspeakable humility with which thou repliest to the Archangel Gabriel: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word; and by the divine Mystery which the Holy Ghost then wrought in thee, and by the ineffable grace, goodness, mercy, love, and humility with which thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, came down to take human flesh in thy most adorable womb; and by those most glorious joys which thou hadst of thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And by that holy and exceeding compassion and most bitter grief of heart which thou hadst when thou beheldedst thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, stripped naked before the Cross, lifted up, hanging crucified, wounded, and thirsting upon it, and sawest that most bitter potion, the gall and the vinegar put to his mouth, heardest Him cry, Eli, and sawest him die.
And by the Five Wounds of the same thy Son, and by the sinking of thy heart through excessive sorrow for his wounds, and by the sorrow which thou hadst when thou sawest him wounded, even through the fountains of his Blood; and by all his Passion, and the sorrow of thy heart; and by the fountains of thy tears, I implore thee to come with all the Saints and Elect of God, and hasten to me with help and counsel in all my prayers and supplications, in all my distresses and necessities, and in all those circumstances in which I am to do, or speak, or think anything, all the days, and nights, and hours, and moments of my life.
And to obtain for me, thy servant, of thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the fulness of all virtues, with all mercy and consolation, all counsel and aid, all blessing and sanctification, all salvation, peace, and prosperity, all joy and cheerfulness ; also the abundance of all spiritual, and the sufficiency of corporal blessings, and the grace of the Holy Ghost, to order me well in all things, to guard my soul, to govern and protect my body, to elevate my mind, to settle my conduct, to prove my actions, to suggest to me holy thoughts, to pardon me the ill that is past, amend the present and overrule the future; to give me a chaste and a good life ; to bestow on me Faith, Hope, and Charity ; to make me firmly to believe the Articles of the Holy Faith, and to keep the Precepts of the Law; to govern and protect my bodily senses, and evermore to deliver and defend me from mortal sins, even to my life’s end.
May he graciously hear and receive this my prayer, and grant to me Life everlasting. Hearken and intercede for me, O most Sweet Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of all mercy. Amen.