Loving Mother

In honour of the Kindly Mother of the Redeemer today, we sing:

Alma Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti, surgere qui curat populo:  tu quae genuisti, natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem: Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore, Sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere.   

Loving Mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.  To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator, yet remained a virgin after as before.  You who received Gabriel's joyful greeting have pity on us poor sinners.  

Raphael 1483-1520
Madonna and Child (The Conestabile Madonna), 1502-03
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

[V]  After childbirth, O Virgin, thou didst remain inviolate.  

[R]  O Mother of God, plead for us. 

Let us pray.

O God, Who by the fruitful virginity of blessed Mary, hast given unto mankind the rewards of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech thee, that we may experience her intercession for us, by whom we deserved to receive the Author of Life, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.