Devotion for today: A Mother’s Day prayer to Mary

O joyful heart of Mary,

What trembling bliss was thine,

Thy Son and God to worship

Within His humble shrine:

To watch His Infant footsteps,

To guard His infant rest,

Within thine arms to shield Him

And clasp Him to thy breast.

O mournful heart of Mary,

To meet that cruel day,

When rent and racked and tortured,

Upon the Cross He lay;

To feel His bitter anguish,

To hear His dying cry,

To see His death thirst mocked at,

And then to see him die.

O glorious Heart of Mary,

O wonder spot above,

Where God hath all surpassed Himself

In royalty and love;

For every pang a glory,

For every prayer a wreath,

His crowning grace above thee

His brightest saints beneath.

But sweetest and joyful Mother,

Mother of tears and woe,

Mother of grace and glory,

Thou still hast cares below:

Then bid us share thy rapture,

And bid us taste the pain,

And sing at last thy grandeur

In Christ’s eternal reign.

Fr. H. O’Laverty, B.A.