Saturday for Our Blessed Mother

This is Our Lady of Quito, in Ecuador. It is representing her seven sorrows that were predicted by holy Simeon in the temple at the Purification. Tomorrow, Sunday, is also the day of our Mother's Sorrows, besides being Passion Sunday this year. However, this is Saturday, and I'm going to add this sequence taken from the Cluny missal. Let us have recourse to Mary, the Refuge of sinners:


Hail Mary, full of grace! dear Mother of Jesus, and hope of the world!

O gate of heaven! O temple of God! O haven of the sea, where sinners confidently seek shelter and repose.

Thou art the worthy bride of the great King, and, by thy powerful prayers, thou art kind and loving to all.

Thou art light to the blind, and a sure path to such as are lame. Thou art, by thy loving affection, both Martha and Mary to the needy.

Thou wast the flower among the thorns; the flower that, by its rich graces, bloomed to the divine Flower, thy Jesus.

Thou didst speak thy word, and then conceivest the Word; thou didst give birth to the King of kings, thou that wast a Virgin.

Thou wast ever faithful to this King, thy Child; and, using a mother's privilege, thou didst feed him at thy breast.

Now, thou art united with Him, and in reward for thy merits, thou art made the Queen of heaven and earth.

Then pray for us, O Queen, to Him that is our King, beseeching Him to pardon us poor fallen sinners.

Show us thy wonted clemency, and, having obtained us the new life of remission of our sins, bring us to the kingdom, there to reign for ever. Amen.
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O God, at whose Passion, as foretold by Simeon, a sword of sorrow pierced the most sweet soul of glorious Mary, Virgin and Mother: grant in Thy mercy, that we who reverently call to mind her anguish and suffering, may be helped by the glorious merits and prayers of all the saints who faithfully stand at Thy Cross, and win the happy fruit of Thy Passion: Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

(Roman Breviary)