6. Prayer to St Mary (2)
6. Prayer to St Mary (2)
when the mind is anxious with fear
Virgin venerated throughout the world,
Mother dear to the human race,
Woman, marvel of the angels,
Mary, most holy.
5
By your blessed virginity you have made all integrity sacred,
and by your glorious child-bearing
you have brought salvation to all fruitfulness.
Great Lady,
to you the joyous company of the saints gives thanks;
10
to you the fearful crowd of the accused flee;
and to you, Lady of might and mercy,
I flee, a sinner every way, beyond measure distressed.
*
Lady, it seems to me as if I were already
before the all-powerful justice of the stern judge
15
facing the intolerable vehemence of his wrath,
while hanging over me is the enormity of my sins,
and the huge torments they deserve.
Most gentle Lady,
whose intercession should I implore
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when I am troubled with horror, and shake with fear,
but hers, whose womb embraced
the reconciliation of the world?
Whence should I most surely hope for help quickly in need,
but from her whence I know came the world’s propitiation?
25
Who can more easily gain pardon for the accused
by her intercession,
than she who gave milk to him
who justly punishes or mercifully pardons all and each one?
Most blessed Lady, it is not possible for you to forget
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that those merits which are so specially yours
are very necessary to us.
Most gentle Lady, it is not credible that you should not pity
such pitiable suppliants.
Well the world knows,
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and we sinners do not in any way hide it from the world,
we know well enough, Lady, who is ‘the son of man’,
and to what sons of men ‘he came
to seek that which was lost’.
Lady, mother of my hope,
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surely you will not forget in hatred of me
what you so mercifully brought into the world,
so happily revealed and lovingly embraced?
The son of man in his goodness came
of his own free will to save that which was lost;
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how can the mother of God not care
when the lost cry to her?
The son of man came to ‘call sinners to repentance’ –
how can the mother of God despise
the prayers of the repentant?
50
The good God, the gentle man,
the merciful son of God, the good son of man,
came to seek the sinner who had strayed;
and will you, good mother of the man,
mighty mother of God,
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repel wretches who pray to you?
*
O human virgin,
of you was born a human God, to save human sinners,
and see, before both son and mother
is a human sinner, penitent and confessing,
60
groaning and praying.
I beg you both,
good Lord and good Lady, dear son and dear mother,
by this truth which is the only hope of sinners,
that you will be her son and you will be his mother
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to save this sinner.
Thus, thus let this sinner be absolved and cared for,
healed and saved.
In this he shows himself to be your sinner,
as indeed he is,
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for he knows you to be both son and mother
for the salvation of sinners.
Indeed I am the sinner who belongs to you both.
*
When I have sinned against the son,
I have alienated the mother,
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nor can I offend the mother without hurting the son.
What will you do, then, sinner?
Where will you flee?
Who can reconcile me to the son if the mother is my enemy,
or who will make my peace with the mother
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if I have angered the son?
Surely if I have offended you both equally
you will both also be merciful?
So the accused flees from the just God
to the good mother of the merciful God.
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The accused finds refuge from the mother he has offended
in the good son of the kind mother.
The accused is carried from one to the other
and throws himself between
the good son and the good mother.
*
90
Dear Lord, spare the servant of your mother;
dear Lady, spare the servant of your son.
Good son, make your servant’s peace with your mother;
good mother, reconcile your son to your servant.
When I throw myself between two
95
of such unbounded goodness
I shall not fall under the severity of their power.
Good son, good mother,
do not let me confess this truth about you in vain,
lest I blush for hoping in your goodness.
100
I love the truth I confess about you,
and I beg for that goodness which I hope for from you.
*
Tell me, judge of the world, whom you will spare,
tell me, reconciler of the world, whom you will reconcile,
if you, Lord, condemn, and you, Lady, turn away
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your goodness and love from this little man
who confesses his sin with sorrow?
Saviour of each one, tell me whom you will save,
mother of salvation, tell me for whom you will pray,
if it is by your command, Lord,.
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and with your consent, Lady,
that torments vex the sinner
who blames himself and prays to you,
that hell absorbs the prisoner
who accuses himself and entreats you,
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that Tartarus devours the poor man
who despairs of himself and hopes in you.
*
God, who was made the son of a woman out of mercy;
woman, who was made mother of God out of mercy;
have mercy upon this wretch,
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you forgiving, you interceding,
or show the unhappy man to whom he may flee for safety
and point out in whose power he may more certainly confide.
If it is – or rather because it is –
that my sin is so great and my faith so small,
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so cool my love, so feeble my prayer,
so imperfect my satisfaction,
that I deserve neither the forgiveness of sins
nor the grace of salvation,
for this very reason I ask that in whatever way
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you see that my merits are not sufficient for me,
there in your mercy you will not be found wanting.
So I ask you to hear me
by your own merits rather than mine,
so that by the goodness you pour forth
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and the power in which you abound,
I may escape the sorrows of damnation which I deserve
and enter into the joy of the blessed
to praise you, God,
who are worthy to be praised and exalted for ever. Amen.