Septuagesima Week [Monday thru Saturday]

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MONDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

The serpent said to the woman: “Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?” Thus opened the conversation which our mother Eve so rashly consents to hold with God’s enemy. She ought to refuse all intercourse with Satan; she does not; and thereby she imperils the salvation of the whole human race.

Let us recall to mind the events that have happened up to this fatal hour. God, in His omnipotence and love, has created two beings, upon whom He has lavished all the riches of His goodness. He has destined them for immortality; and this undying life is to have everything that can make it perfectly happy. The whole of nature is subject to them, and love them with all the tenderness of grateful children. Nay, this God of goodness who has created them; deigns to be on terms of intimacy with them; and such is their simple innocence, that this adorable condescension does not seem strange to them. But there is something far beyond all this. He, whom they have hitherto known by favours of an inferior order, prepares for them a happiness which surpasses all they could picture with every effort of thought. They must first go through a trial; and if faithful, they will receive the great gift as a recompense they have merited. And this is the gift: God will give them to know Him in Himself, make them partakers of His own glory, and make their happiness infinite and eternal. Yes, this is what God has done, and is preparing to do for these two beings, who but a while ago were nothing.

In return for all these gratuitous and magnificent gifts, God asks of them but one thing: that they acknowledge His dominion over them. Nothing, surely, can be sweeter to them than to make such a return; nothing could be more just. All they are, and all they have, and all the lovely creation around them, has been produced out of nothing by the lavish munificence of this God; they must, then, live for Him, faithful, loving, and grateful. He asks them to give Him one only proof of this fidelity, love, and gratitude: He bids them not to eat of the fruit of one single tree. The only return He asks for all the favours He has bestowed upon them, is the observance of this easy commandment. His sovereign justice will be satisfied by this act of obedience. They ought to accept such terms with hearty readiness, and comply with them with a hold pride, as being not only the tie which will unite them with their God, but the sole means in their power of paying Him what He asks of them.

But there comes another voice, the voice of a creature, and it speaks to the woman: ‘Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree?’ And Eve dares, and has the heart, to listen to him that asks why her divine Benefactor has put a command upon her! She can bear to hear the justice of God’s will called in question! Instead of protesting against the sacrilegious words, she tamely answers them! Her God is blasphemed and she is not indignant! How dearly we shall have to pay for this ungrateful indifference, this indiscretion! ‘And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commended us that we should not eat, and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.’ (Gen. iii. 2,3) Thus Eve not only listens to the serpent’s question, she answers him; she converses with the wicked spirit that tempts her. She exposes herself to danger; her fidelity to her Maker is compromised. True, the words she uses show that she has not forgotten His command; but they imply a certain hesitation, which savours of pride and ingratitude.

The spirit of evil finds that he has excited, in this heart, a love of independence; and that if he can but persuade her that she will not suffer from her disobedience, she is his victim. He, therefore, further addresses her with these blasphemous and lying words: “No, you shall not die the death; for God knoweth, that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” What he proposes to Eve is open rebellion. He has enkindled within her that perfidious love of self which is man’s worst evil, and which, if it be indulged, breaks the tie between him and his Creator. Thus the blessings God has bestowed, the obligation of gratitude, personal interest, all are to be disregarded and forgotten. Ungrateful man would become a god; he would imitate the rebel angels: he shall fall as they did.

In Dominica Tyrophagi

Adeadum anima mea infelix, actus tuos hodie defle, memoria recolns priorem in Eden nuditatem, propter quam deliciis et perenni gaudio excidisti.
Come, my poor soul! bewail this day thy deeds. Think within thyself of that sin which made thee naked in Eden, and robbed thee of delight and joy eternal.

Pro multa pietate atque miserationibus, Conditor creaturæ et factor universorum, me pulvere prius animatum una cum angelis tuis te collaudare præcepisti.
Creator of me and of all things! in thy great goodness and mercy, thou, having made me out of dust, and given me a soul, didst command me to unite with the angels in praising thee.

Propter bonitatis divitias, plantas tu, Conditor et Domine, paradisi delicias in Eden, jubens me speciosis jucundisque minimeque caducis fructibus oblectari.
My Maker and Lord! in the riches of thy goodness, thou plantest a paradise of delights in Eden, and biddest me feast on its lovely, sweet, and incorruptible fruits.

Hei mihi! anima mea misera, fruendarum Eden voluptatum faculatem a Deo acceperas, vetitumque tibi ne scientiæ lignum manducares: qua de causa Dei legem violasti?
Woe is me, O my wretched soul! Thy God permitted thee that thou shouldst enjoy the Eden of delights, if thou wouldst obey him and not eat of the tree of knowledge. Wherefore didst thou violate his law?

(Virgo Dei Genitrix, utpote Adami ex genere filia, per gratiam vero Christi Dei Mater, nunc me revoca ex Eden ejectum.)
(O Virgin-Mother of God! Daughter of Adam by nature, but Mother of Christ by grace! recall me now the exile from Eden.)

Serpens dolosus honorem meum quondam mihi invidens, in Evæ auribus delum insusurravit, unde ego deceptus, hei mihi! e vitæ sede exsulavi.
The crafty serpent envying me such honor, whispered his guile into Eve’s ear; and I, alas! deceived by her, was banished from the land of life.

Manu temere extensa, scientiæ lignum degustavi, quod ne contingeren mihi Deus omnino præscripserat, et cum acerbo doloris sensu divinam gloriam exsul amisi.
Rashly stretching forth my hand, I tasted of the tree of knowledge, which God forbade me even to touch: and then, with keen sense of grief, I, an exile, lost the glory of God.

Hei mihi! misera anima mea, quomodo dolum non nosti? Quomodo fraudem et inimici invidiam minime sensisti? Sed mente obtenebrata Conditoris tui mandatum neglexisti.
Alas, miserable man! How came I not to know the snare? How was it that I suspected not the enemy’s craft and envy? My soul was darkened and I set at nought my Creator’s command.

(Spes et protectio mea, O veneranda, quæ sola olim lapsi Adami nuditatem cooperuisti puerperio tuo, rursus, O pura, me incorruptionis veste circumda.)
(O most venerable one! my hope and refuge! who by giving birth to thy Jesus, didst cover the nakedness of fallen Adam, clothe me too, O Virgin, with this incorruptible garb!)

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TUESDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

The serpent’s promises had stifled, in Eve’s heart, every sentiment of love for the God that had created her and loaded her with blessings: she ambitions to be God like Him! Her faith, too, is wavering; she is not sure that God may not have deceived her, by threatening her with death should she disobey His command. Flushed by pride, she looks up to the forbidden fruit; it seems good to eat, and it is fair to her eyes. So that her senses too conspire against God, and against her own happiness. The sin is already committed in her heart; it needs but a formal act to make it complete. She cares for nothing but self; God is no more heeded than if He did not exist. She stretches forth her daring hand; she plucks the fruit; she puts it to her mouth, and eats!

God had said that if she broke His commandment she should die; she has eaten, she has sinned, and yet she lives as before! Her pride exults at this triumph, and, convinced that she is too strong for God’s anger to reach her, she resolves on making Adam a partner in her victory. Boldly she hands him the fruit, which she herself has eaten without any evil coming to her. Whether he was emboldened by the impunity of his wife’s sin, or, from a feeling of blind affection, wished to share the lot of her who was the ‘flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones,’ our first father, also, forgets all he owes to his Creator, and, as though there had never been aught of love between him and his God, he basely does as Eve suggests: he eats of the fruit, and by that act ruins himself and all his posterity.

No sooner have they broken the tie which united them with God, than they sink into themselves. As long as God dwells in the creature, whom He has raised to the supernatural state, his being is complete; but, let that creature drive his God away from himself by sin, and he finds himself in a state worse than nothing – the state of evil. That soul which, a moment before, was so beautiful and pure, is a hideous wreck. Thus is it with our first parents: they stand alone; creatures without God; and an intolerable shame seizes them. They thought to become gods, they aspired at infinite being; see them now: — sinners, the prey of concupiscence. Hitherto, their innocence was their all-sufficient garb; the world was obedient to them; they knew not how to blush, and there was nothing to make them fear; but now, they tremble at their nakedness, and must needs seek a place wherein to hide!

The same self-love that had worked their ruin, had made them forget the greatness and goodness of God, and depise His commandment. Now that they have committed the great sin, the same blindness prevents them from even thinking of confessing it, or asking the forgiveness of the Master they have offended. A sullen fear possesses them. They can think of nothing but how and where to hide!

In Dominica Tyrophagi

Miser ego, honore a te, Domine, in Eden affectus fui: hei mihi! quomodo in errorem inductus, et diabolica invidia appetitus, depulsus sum a facie tua?
Unhappy me! thou hadst laden me, O Lord, with honors in Eden. But alas! I was led into sin; I became a victim to the envy of the devil; I have been driven from thy face.

Angelorum ordines, paradisi ornamenta, et plantarum quæ illic sunt decus, me fraude misera abductum et a Deo longius digressum lugete.
O ye choirs of angels! ye that give paradise such beauty, and to its flowers their loveliness; weep over me the dupe of wretched craft, now far from your God.

Pratum beatum, plantatæ a Deo arbores, paradisi deliciæ, a foliis velut ex oculis lacrymas nunc effundite super me, nudum et a Dei gloria abdicatum.
O fair garden land! O ye trees, charm of paradise, planted by God’s own hand, let your leaves be turned into eyes, and shed your tears over me, for I am a naked king, dethroned of God’s glory.

(Domina sancta, quæ fidelibus omnibus paradisi januas ab Adam per onobedientiam quondam clausas aperuisti, misericordiæ mihi fores expande.)
(O holy Mother! thou that didst throw open to the faithful those gates of heaven that had been shut by Adam’s disobedience, open now to me the gates of God’s mercy.)

Invidens mihi olim inimicus, hominum osor, beatum paradisi domicilium me specie serpentis supplantavit, atque ab æterna gloria submovit.
The enemy, the hater of mankind, envied me my blissful home in Eden; under the form of a serpent he supplanted me, and robbed me of eternal glory.

Lugeo et animo discrucior, oculisque lacrymarum multitudinem adjungere exopto, respiciens et intelligens partam mihi ex transgressione nuditatem.
My soul weeps and is racked, and I fain would give floods of tears to mine eyes, when I see and understand the nakedness that has come to me by my transgression.

Dei manus me a terra plasmavit; at in terram rursus revertendi miser legem accepi: quisnam me ejectum a Deo, et inferos pro Eden assecutum, non defleat?
The hand of God formed me out of the earth; but I have miserably brought on myself the sentence: I must return into the earth. Who is there that will not weep over me, that have lost my God, and have given up Eden for hell?

(Te, labis omnis expers Dei Genitrix, fideles universi mysticum gloriæ thalamum annunciamus, unde lapsum me, precor, o pura, aptum fac paradisi thalamum.)
(Sinless Mother of God! the faithful throughout the world proclaim thee to be the mystic throne of glory. I, then, that am fallen, beseech thee, spotless Virgin! prepare me for a throne in heaven!)

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WEDNESDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

The guilty pair appear before the great God, whom they have offended; and instead of acknowledging their guilt, they seek to palliate and excuse it. But divine justice pronounces their condemnation, and the sentence will be felt by their posterity, even to the last generation. The two beings, that had committed the heinous crime, had been enriched with every gift of nature and grace. It was not with them, as it is with us. Concupiscence which gives us an inclination for what is wrong; ignorance and forgetfulness which cloud the intellect of fallen man, these miseries had nothing whatever to do with the fall of our first parents. They sinned through sheer ingratitude. They began by weighing the proposal of revolt, when they ought to have spurned it with indignation and conquered by flight. Then, by degrees, the proposed crime seemed no great harm, because, though God would lose their obedience, they would gain by the disobedience! And at length, the love of God was made to give place to the love of self, and they declared their independence! Yet God had mercy on them, because of their posterity.

The angels were all created at one and the same instant, and each of them was subjected to the trial, which was to decide his eternal future. Each angel depended on his own act, on his own choice between fidelity to his Creator and rebellion against Him; so that they who rebelled drew on themselves the eternity of God’s chastisement. The human race, on the contrary, existed not save as represented in its two first parents, and was plunged by and with them into the abyss of God’s reprobation: therefore, God, who spared not the angels, mercifully spared the human race.

But let us listen to the three sentences pronounced by God after the fall of man. The first is against the serpent, and is the severest. The curse, which is already upon him, is deepened, and the pardon, which is about to be promised to the human race, is to be given in the form of an anathema against that wicked spirit, that has dared to war with God in the work of His hands.

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman; she shall crush thy head.” Thus does God avenge Himself on His enemy. The victory won over the woman is made to turn against the proud conqueror, and become his humiliation and his defeat. In the fiendish craft, he had directed his first attack not against the man, but against the woman. She, by nature, was weaker and more credulous; and if he conquered her, he hoped—too well, alas!—that Adam would be led to turn against his Creator, in order not to displease the creature. All happened as he willed it: but now, see how God uses the woman to foil and punish him. He enkindles in her heart an implacable hatred against His and our enemy. This cruel serpent may raise his proud head and, here and there, find men that will adore him: the day will come when a woman’s foot shall crush his head, which refused to bend before God. This daughter of Eve, whom all generations are to call blessed, shall be prefigured by other women: by Debbora, Judith, Esther, and others, all celebrated for their victories over the serpent. She shall be followed until the end of time by an uninterrupted succession of Christian virgins and matrons who, with all their weakness, shall be powerful in cooperating with God’s designs and, as the apostle says, “the unbelieving husband shall be sanctified by the believing wife.”

Thus will God punish the serpent’s pride. Before pronouncing upon our first parents the sentence they have deserved, He promises to bless their posterity, and pours into their own hearts a ray of hope.

In Dominica Tyrophagi

Tunc sedit Adamus, ploravitque contra paradisi delicias, oculos manibus feriens, atque dicebat: Misericors, miserere mei lapsi.
Then did Adam look back on the Eden of delights, and sitting wept; he his his face in his hands, and said: O merciful God! have mercy on me the fallen one!

Intuitus Adamus angelum impellentem claudentemque divini horti fores, ingemuit vehementer, dicebatque: Misericors, miserere mei lapsi.
He saw the angel that drove him from the garden of God; and as he beheld him shutting its gates against him, he heaved a deep sigh, and said: O merciful God! have mercy on me the fallen one!

Doleas vices, paradise, domini tui ad mendicitatem detrusi, foliorumque tuorum sonitu Conditorem deprecare ne te claudat. Misericors, miserere mei lapsi.
Weep, Eden, over thy master thus made poor! Let the rustling of thy leaves become a prayer, asking our Creator that he close thee not. O merciful God! have mercy on me the fallen one!

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THURSDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Forgiveness is promised; but atonement must be made. Divine justice must be satisfied, and future generations be taught that sin can never pass unpunished. Eve is the guiltier of the two, and her sentence follows that of the serpent. Destined by God to aid man in peopling the earth with happy and faithful children, formed by this God out of man’s own substance ‘flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bones,’ woman was to be on an equality with man. But sin has subverted this order, and God’s sentence is this: conjugal union, notwithstanding the humiliation of concupiscence now brought upon it, is to be, as before, holy and sacred; but it is to be inferior in dignity, before both God and man, to the state of virginity, which disdains the ambitions of the flesh.

Secondly, woman shall be mother still, as she would have been in the state of innocence; but her honour shall be a burden. Moreover, she shall give birth to her children amidst cruel pains, and sometimes even death must be the consequence of her infant’s coming into the world. The sin of Eve shall thus be memorialized at every birth, and nature shall violently resist the first claims of him, whom sin has made her unwelcome lord.

Lastly, she who was at first created to enjoy equality of honour with man, is now to forfeit her independence. Man is to be her superior, and she must obey him. For long ages, this obedience will be no better than slavery; and this degradation shall continue till that Virgin comes, whom the world shall have expected for four thousand years, and whose humility shall crush the serpent’s head. She shall restore her sex to its rightful position, and give to Christian woman that influence of gentle persuasiveness, which is compatible with the duty imposed upon her by divine justice, and which can never be remitted: the duty of submission.

In Dominica Tyrophagi

Dominator sæculorum omnium Domine, qui me voluntate tua procreasti, dolosi draconis invidia quondam afflictum, teque, Salvator, ad iracundiam concitantem, ne despicias, Deus, sed revoca me.
O Lord! King of all ages! who didst create me by thy love; I have been injured by the envy of the crafty serpent, and have provoked thee, my Savior, to anger: but despise me not, O God! Call me back to thee.

Hei mihi! pro stola splendida, turpitudinis indumentis obvolutus, lugeo, Salvator, exitium meum, et fide ad te clamo; ne despicias me bone Deus, sed revoca.
Alas! my bright robe has been changed into this garb of shame. I bewail my ruin, O Savior, and to thee do I cry with confidence: My good God! Despise me not, but call me back to thee.

Serpentium ferarumque dominus effectus, quo pacto serpenti animabus exitiali familiariter congressus es, inimico veluti bono consiliario usus? O errorem tuum, miserrima anima mea!
How, my soul, couldst thou, that wast made the lord of serpents and beasts, treat the soul-slaying serpent with familiarity, and use thine enemy as a trusty counsellor? Bewail, my wretched soul, thy fatal error!

(Canimus te, Maria, Dei gratia plena, lucidum divinæ incarnationis tabernaculum; quare me cupiditatibus fœde obtenebratum illumina, fons misericordiæ, spes eorum quos omnis spes dereliquit.)
(To thee do we sing, O Mary, full of divine grace! Hail bright tabernacle of the Incarnation! O fount of mercy, hope of them that are in despair, enlighten me that am dishonored by the dark clouds of my passions.)

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FRIDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

The curse, which is henceforth to lie so heavily on every human being, has been expressed in the sentence pronounced against Eve; the curse, to which the earth itself is to be subjected, is Adam’s sentence. ‘Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work (that is, on account of what thou hast done.)’ (Gen. iii. 7) Adam had excused his sin. God does not admit his excuse; yet He mercifully makes allowance for him, seeing that he sinned, not so much to gratify himself, as to please the frail creature that had been formed out of his own substance. He is not the originator of the disobedient act. God, therefore, sentences him to the personal humiliation of labour and toil, and to eating his bread in the sweat of his brow. (Gen. iii. 17,19) 

Outside the garden of Eden, there lies the immense desert of the earth. It is to be the valley of tears; and there must Adam dwell in exile for upwards of nine hundred years, with the sad recollection in his heart of the few happy days spent in paradise! This desert is barren: Adam must give it fruitfulness by his toil, and draw from it, by the sweat of his brow, his own and his children’s nourishment. If, in after ages, some men shall live without toil, they are the exception confirming the general law and chastisement. They rest, because others have laboured long and hard for them; neither will God ratify their exceptional dispensation from labour, except on the condition that they give encouragement, by their charity and other virtues, to their fellow-men, in whom Adam’s sentence is literally carried out. Such is the necessity of toil, that if it be refused, the earth will yield but thorns and thistles; (Gen. iii. 18) such, too, the importance of this law imposed on fallen man, that idleness shall not only corrupt his heart, it shall also enervate his bodily strength.

Before his sin, the trees of paradise bent down their branches, and man fed on their delicious fruits; but now he must till the earth and draw from it, with anxiety and fatigue, the seed which is to give him bread. Nothing could better express the penal relation between him and the earth, from which he was originally formed, and which is henceforth to be his tomb, than this law to which God sentence him, of being indebted to the earth for the nourishment which is to keep him in life. And yet here also divine mercy shall show itself; for, when God shall have been appeased, it shall be granted to man to unite himself to his Creator by eating the Bread of life, which is to come down from heaven, and whose efficacy for the nourishing of our souls shall be greater than ever the fruit of the tree of life could have been for the immortalizing of our bodily existence.

In Dominica Tyrophagi

Dulcis ad vescendum fructus scientiæ in Eden visus est mihi, amore capto; at demum in bilem conversus est. Hei nihi! misera anima, quomodo intemperantia te e paradisi laribus exturbavit?
My desire blinded me; and the fruit that grew on Eden’s tree of knowledge seemed to me to be sweet to eat; but it has been turned into bitterness. Unhappy man, I have been driven from my home of paradise by intemperance!

Deus universorum, misericordiæ Domine, ad humilitatem meam benigne respice, nec a devino Eden longe me ejicias, quo venustates unde excidi aspiciens, fletibus cursus amissa bona recipiam.
O God of the universe! O merciful Lord! look with pity upon my lowliness, and suffer me to dwell near thy divine Eden, that so my eyes may turn towards the fair land I have lost, and I, by my tears, regain it.

Fleo, ingemo, atque lamentor Cherubim ad paradisi ingressum custodiendum igneo ense locata conspiciens, transgressoribus omnibus, hei mihi! inaccessum, nisi tu, Salvator, aditum mihi facilem præstes.
I weep, and sigh, and am afflicted, as I behold the Cherubim guarding, with a flaming sword, the gate of paradise, which is shut against all sinners. Alas! how can I enter, unless thou, my Savior, grant me admission?

Confido in multitudine misericordiæ tuæ, Christe salvator, ac divini lateris tui sanguine, unde hominum naturam sanctificasti, et colentibus te aperuisti, o bone, paradisi portas antea Adamo præclusas.
O Christ, my Savior, my hope is in thy great mercy, and in the Blood which flowed from thy sacred Side, whereby thou didst sanctify mankind, and open, O good Jesus, to them that serve thee, the gate of paradise, which heretofore was shut against Adam.

(Vitæ porta, impervia, spiritualis, virgo Deipara, innupta, pande mihi precibus tuis, paradisi clausa olim fores, quo te meam post Deum auxiliatricem firmumque refugium glorificem.)
(O gate of life! Spiritual gate, which God has kept for himself! O Virgin-Mother of God, espoused to none but him! Open to me, by thy prayers, the once closed gate of heaven; that so I may glorify thee, who, after God, art my helper and sure refuge!)

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SATURDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

The sentence pronounced by the Almighty upon our first parents was to fall upon their children to the end of time. We have been considering, during this week of Septuagesima, the penalties of the great sin; but the severest and most humiliating of them all remains to be told. It is the transmission to the whole human race of original sin. It is true that the merits of the promised Redeemer will be applied to each individual man, in the manner established by God at various periods of time: still, this spiritual regeneration, whilst cleansing us from the leprosy which covered us, and restoring us to the dignity of children of God, will not remove every scar of the old wound. It will save us from eternal death, and restore us to life; but, as long as our pilgrimage lasts, we shall be weak and sickly. Thus it is that ignorance makes us short-sighted in those great truths, which should engross all our thoughts; and this fills us with illusions, which, by an unhappy inclination of our will, we cling to and love. Concupiscence is ever striving to make our soul a slave to the body; and in order to escape this tyranny, our life has to be one continual struggle. An unruly love for independence is unceasingly making us desire to be our own masters, and forget that we were born to obey. We find pleasure in sin, whereas virtue rewards us with nothing, in this life, save the consciousness of our having done our duty.

Knowing all this, we are filled with admiration and love when we think of thee, O Mary! Thou purest of God’s creatures. Thou art our sister in nature; thou art a daughter of Eve; but thou wast conceived without sin, and art therefore the honour of the human race. Thou art of the same flesh and blood as ourselves; and yet thou art immaculate. The divine decree, which condemned us to inherit the disgrace of original sin, could not include thy most pure conception; and the serpent felt, as thy foot crushed his haughty head, that thou hadst never been under his power. In thee, O Mary! we find our nature such as it was when our God first created it. Hail, then, spotless Mirror of justice!

O Mary! beautiful in thine unsullied holiness, pray for us who are weighed down by the consequences of that sin of our first parents, which God would not suffer to approach thee. Thou art the implacable enemy of the serpent; watch over us, lest his sting inflict death on our souls. We were conceived in sin, and born in sorrow; pray for us, that we may so live as to merit blessing. We are condemned to toil, to suffering, and to death; intercede for us, that our atonement may find acceptance with our Lord. We are exposed to the treachery of our evil inclinations; we are in love with this present life; we forget eternity; we are ever striving to deceive our own hearts: how could we escape hell, were the grace of thy divine Son not unceasingly offered to us, enabling us to triumph over all our enemies? Thou, O Immaculate Mother of Jesus, art the Mother of divine grace! Pray for us, that we, who glory in being thy kindred by nature, may be daily more and more enriched with this priceless gift.

Let us salute the blessed Mother of God in the words of the following sequence, taken from the ancient missal of Cluny. 

Catholic piety has consecrated to Mary the Saturday of each week.

Sequence

Ad laudem Matris Dei
Modulemur licet rei,
Poscentes remedia.

Let us, though sinners, sing a hymn in praise of the Mother of God; let us sing our prayer for help.

Hæc nostræ forma spei,
Spes mirandæ speciei,
Quæ vernat in gloria.

Oh! how well may we hope in her, that beautiful Mother, whose glory is bright as spring!

Hæ virtutis nutrimentum,
Spes solaris, sola laris
Terreni fiducia.

It is she that trains us to virtue, and warms our earthly home with the sunny beam of hope.

Stella maris quæ vocaris,
Passus rectos et directos,
Da pacis suffragia.

Thou that art called Star of the sea, direct us, steer us, get us the calm of peace.

Sicut sidus naufrago,
Fulgens dux in pelago,
Tu præclara.

Thou brightly shinest on life’s sea, guiding us, as does the friendly star which leads the shipwrecked into port.

Mundi lux in tenebris,
Stella nitens celebris,
Deo cara.

Thou art a light to worldlings in their darkness, thou art the shining well-known star, so dear to God.

In sede cœlica
Residens, hæc mellica
Admitte cantica,
Virgo pia.

Seated on thy heavenly throne, receive, O Virgin-Mother, these our sweet canticles.

Paventi psallere,
Trementi pro scelere
Des ausus,
Tu plausus,
Veri vena.

To the sinner who fears to sing, do thou, fount of truth, give courage and applause.

To cœli regina,
Mundi medicina,
Munda scelus nostrum,
Piissima.

Thou art the Queen of heaven, thou art the solace of the world; may thy loving prayers cleanse us from our guilt.

In mortis ruina,
Nos ad vitam mina,
Placans Deum,
Tu benignissima.

We have merited death; but intercede for us to God, most merciful Queen! and so lead us unto life.

Cara parens, O Maria,
Patris parens, Virgo pia,
Nos in umbre mortis via
Sedentes illumina!

O Mary, dear Mother! Mother of thy Creator! Virgin ever merciful! enlighten us that are sitting in the shades of death.

Ut te nobis stella duce,
Tui Nati tuti cruce,
Mereamur cœli luce
Per te frui, Domina.
Amen.

That, guided by thee our star, and protected by the cross of thy Son, we may, through thy intercession, be brought to the enjoyment of light eternal. Amen.

[Stone]

A reminder ....

[Stone]

A reminder ...