Today is the first Saturday of the month. I just felt that I wanted to write something about Our Blessed Mother.
"Whenever I behold the image of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, I cry: 'O Immaculate Mother of God, pray to your Son and my God to have mercy on me, in goodness and in mercy, for the prayers of Mary are of great weight in gaining the clemency of the Master. Do not despise the prayer of a sinner, O all-venerable one, for He can save us Who deigned to suffer for us'"
St. John of Damascus (8th Century_
O thou Virgin, spotless, undefiled, incorruptible, most chaste and pure, Lady, Bride of God, who by thy glorious giving birth hast united God the Word with men, and linked our apostate nature with heavenly things; who art the one hope of the hopeless, the helper of the oppressed, the ready protection of them that flee unto thee, and the refuge of all Christians; despise me not, a defiled sinner, who by my impious thoughts, words and deeds have made myself an unprofitable servant, and by reason of my sloth am become a slave of sensual pleasure.....Accept this my prayer offered unto thee with unhallowed lips, and using thy maternal influence with thy Son, our Lord and Master, beseech Him to open to me the loving tenderness of His grace...
Byzantine Horologion, Prayer at Compline. (Circa 9th century?)
Let us all praise the holy Virgin, as the gate of salvation and a garden enclosed, and as having been the cloud over the Everlasting Light: to her let us say: "All Hail!"
Byzantine Triodion, for Great Thursday, Service of the Holy Passion. (circa 6th to 8th century)
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