Alma Redemptoris Mater

To be offered from the First Sunday of Advent to the Feast of the Presentation.

Loving Mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again. To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator, yet remained a virgin after as before. You who received Gabriel’s joyful greeting, have pity on us poor sinners.In Advent:

Lead: The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.

Response: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.Let us pray.

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, a Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His resurrection. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Lead: May the divine assistance remain always with us.

Response: Amen.From the feast of the Vigil of the Nativity to the Presentation:Lead: After childbirth, O Virgin, thou didst remain inviolate.Response: O Mother of God, plead for us.Let us pray. O God, Who by the fruitful virginity of blessed Mary hast given to mankind the rewards of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech Thee, that we may experience her intercession for us, by whom we deserved to receive the Author of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.