Saturday, May 4, 2013

Devotion for today: Selections from “The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary”




I like the prayers in “The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” This book follows the same format as the Liturgy of the Hours, with the prayers and hymns emphasizing Mary. To help us celebrate  the First Saturday of May , let us take a look at some of the prayers and hymns for Saturday Morning Prayer.

God, come to my assistance.
-          Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
-          as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

HYMN: Holy Mary
Holy Mary, my Queen and sovereign Lady, I give you myself, trusting in your fidelity and your protection.
I surrender myself entirely to your motherly tenderness, my body, my soul, all that I am, all that I possess, for the whole of this day, for every moment of my life, and especially at the hour of my death.
I entrust to you once more all my hopes, all my consolations, all my anxieties, all my troubles, my life, my dying breath, so that by your prayers and merits, I may have, in all I do, one only goal, your good pleasure and the holy will of your Son.

Antiphon 2: The Virgin Mary is exalted above the choirs of angels; let all believers rejoice and bless the Lord.

Canticle: Ezekiel 36:24-28
They will be his own people, and God himself will be with them, their own God (Revelation 21:3).
I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.
I will put my spirit within you, and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Antiphon 3: The Lord has made you so glorious that your praise will never cease to resound among me.

First Reading: Revelation 12:1
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

Second Reading: From a letter from Paschasius Radbert, abbot: Mary is taken from earth

Today the glorious, ever-virgin Mary ascends to heaven. I urge you to rejoice, for, if I may so put it, she has been raised up in an ineffable way to be with Christ who reigns for ever. The Queen of the world is today taken from the earth and from this present evil time. I say again: rejoice, because she who is sure of her imperishable glory has reached the palace of heaven. Exult, I say, and rejoice, and let the whole world rejoice, because this day Salvation has drawn nearer for us all… Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.” It was fitting that the Virgin should be given such gifts and be full of grace, since she has bestowed glory on heaven and has brought God and peace to the earth, faith to pagans, an end to vice, order to life, and discipline to morals. And it was right that an angel be sent to the Virgin, because virginity always means kinship with the angels… “Rejoice,” the angel says, ‘for you are full of grace.” Yes, full! For while a share of grace was given to others, the undiminished fullness of grace was poured into Mary.

Concluding Prayer: All powerful and ever-living God, you raised the sinless Virgin Mary, mother of your Son, body and soul to the glory of heaven. May we see heaven as our final goal and come to share her glory. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.



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