Monday 8 September 2008

Maria Bambina


Hail, Infant Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou forever, and blessed are thy holy parents Joachim and Anne, of whom thou wast miraculously born. Mother of God, intercede for us.

We fly to thy patronage, holy and amiable Child Mary, despise not our prayers in our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers, glorious and blessed Virgin.

Pray for us, holy Child Mary.

That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

O almighty and merciful God, Who through the cooperation of the Holy Ghost, didst prepare the body and soul of the Immaculate Infant Mary that she might be the worthy Mother of Thy Son, and didst preserve her from all stain, grant that we who venerate with all our hearts her most holy childhood, may be freed, through her merits and intercession, from all uncleanness of mind and body, and be able to imitate her perfect humility, obedience and charity. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

1 comment:

Mark said...

What a striking, disconcerting, yet strangely beautiful and compelling image...

Many of the great Byzantine authors presented Our Lady's nativity as, in effect, the dawn of that New Creation which attains its fullness in Christ, and which is then projected in the life of the Church.

I guess that, in Byzantine thought, Maria Bambina (had such an icon existed) would have represented the transition from Old Covenant to New Covenant, and from Old Creation to New Creation - the moment at which the restoration of humanity, and, indeed, of the entire cosmos, is finally set in motion.