Hail, daughter of God the Father; hail, mother of God the Son; hail, spouse of God the Holy Ghost; hail, temple of the whole Trinity.—Simon Garcia.
Oh Virgin, how beautiful art thou!
Mother of my God, my heart is enamored with thy goodness.
Thanks be to God and to Mary.
May all things be to the eternal glory of the most holy Trinity, and of the immaculate Mary.
Live always, Jesus our love and Mary our hope, with Joseph and Theresa our advocates.
ACCLAMATIONS IN PRAISE OF MARY.
Oh most holy Virgin Mary! oh queen of angels! how complete and perfect heaven has created thee! Oh, that I might appear in the eyes of God, as thou dost appear to me! Thou art so beautiful and lovely, that with thy beauty thou dost ravish hearts. When thou dost appear, every thing appears deformed, every beauty is eclipsed, every grace disappears, precisely as the stars disappear at the rising of the sun.
Thy great servant, St. John Damascene, contemplated thee; and when he saw thee so lovely, it appeared to him thou hadst taken the flower and the best of every creature, and therefore he called thee: The comeliness of nature: “Naturæ venustatem;” the grace and comeliness of all creatures. St. Augustine, the brightest light of the Doctors, gazed on thee, and thou didst appear to him so beautiful and lovely, that he called thee the form and countenance of God, and it did not seem to him adulation: Thou art worthy of being called the form of God: “Si formam Dei te appellem digna existis.” Thy devout servant, Albertus Magnus, contemplated thee, and it seemed to him that all the graces and gifts that were found in the most celebrated women of the ancient dispensation were all surpassed in thee. The golden mouth of Sara, when with thy smile thou makest heaven and earth joyful; the tender and sweet glance of the fruitful Lia, with which thou dost soften the heart of God inexorable to sinners; the splendor of the countenance of the beautiful Rachel, as thou dost obscure the sun by thy radiant beauty; the grace and the comeliness of the discreet Abigail, with which thou dost appease the wrath of an angry God; the fire and strength of the brave Judith, when thou dost powerfully and graciously subdue the proudest hearts.
In a word, sovereign princess, from the vast ocean of thy beauty flowed forth, like streams, the beauty and grace of all creatures. The sea learned to curl its waves, and wave its crystals, from the golden locks of thy head, which, curling gracefully, floated upon thy shoulders and ivory neck. The crystal fountains, and their clear depths, learned their quiet and steady flow from the serenity of thy beautiful brow and thy placid countenance. The graceful bow, when it is most beautiful, has carefully learned from thy eyebrow to arch itself gracefully, that it may better dart forth its rays of light. The morning Dian and the gentle Hesperus are flashes from thy radiant eyes. The white lily and the ruddy rose have stolen their colors from thy cheeks. The envious purple and coral sigh for the ruby of thy lips. The purest milk and sweetest honey are distillations from the sweet honeycomb of thy mouth. The odorous jasmin and the fragrant rose of Damascus have stolen their perfumes from thy breath. The loftiest cedar and the finest and most erect cypress esteem themselves happy when they see that they are the image of thy straight and lofty neck, and the palm-tree enviously, and in emulation, imitates thy stately stature. And thus, oh Lady, every created beauty is the shadow and copy of thy beauty. Therefore I do not wonder, oh sovereign princess, that heaven and earth are placed under thy feet; for they are so small and thou so great, that when thy feet only rest upon them they are enriched, and they deem themselves happy and blessed when they can kiss them: so the moon when St. John the Evangelist saw her at thy feet. And the splendor of the sun was increased, when thou didst clothe thyself with his rays. The Evangelist, blinded by the greatness of thy light, was lost in wonder, and beside himself at the sight of so stupendous a miracle of beauty, in which the beauty of heaven and earth was contained, and he said: And there appeared a great sign in heaven: “Signum magnum apparuit in cœlo.” There appeared a great wonder in heaven, that amazed the angels and terrified the earth. And that miracle was a woman clothed from head to foot with light and splendor, whom the resplendent sun chose for his mother, and he placed himself in her womb, and to her the fair moon serves as a robe encircled with silver, and innumerable stars crown her temples, and are emulous of encircling her locks, and adorn her head with a wreath of precious gems: And on her head a crown of twelve stars: “Et in capite ejus corona duodecim stellarum.”