Prayer to the Blessed Virgin
Concluding prayer from the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
O Mary, spotless, pure, inviolate,
Heaven’s clear, effulgent gate,
Fair mother of Our Lord and Savior King,
Accept the songs we sing.
Thee our devoted hearts and tongues implore,
That now and evermore
Thou keep our hearts and bodies, Mother mild,
Blameless and undefiled.
By the sure prevalence of thy sweet prayer,
Incline thy Son to spare
Our guilty souls. Queen of benignest grace!
The sole unblemished one of all our race!
What beautiful words – even more beautiful when you look up a few definitions. Inviolate means untouched, unmarred, undamaged. Effulgent means radiant and resplendent in beauty, emanating joy. Oh, my heart, how wonderful.
She truly is heaven’s clear effulgent gate, and if we are to pass through those gates when we die, we really must begin to approach them now, in prayer. So who better, this Lent and always, to kneel before in intercession to Our Lord and Savior King?