from Saint Peter Damian
O Virgin-Mother of God, our Lady! whose beauty sun and moon admire, help those who cry to thee perpetually: 'Return, return, O Sulamitess! return, return that we may behold thee' (Canticle of Canticles 6:12). Thou blessed One, thou super-blessed! return (first) by thy nature. Hast thou forgotten our humanity because thou hast become so God-like? By no means, Lady! - thou knowest in what difficulty thou wouldst leave us, in what depth we lie, how deeply we, thy servants, sin. It were not right that such great mercy should be forgetful of such great misery, for, though thy glory draws thee away from us, thy nature draws thee back again: thou art not so mindful of only the justice of God as to be unmindful to have mercy, nor art thou so impassible as not to be compassionate. Thou hast our nature, not any other; and it is only right that the dews of thy vast pity should be shed more abundantly upon us.
Return (secondly), return by thy power. 'He that is mighty hath done great things in thee,' and all power hath been given to thee in heaven and on earth. Nothing is impossible to thee, to whom it is possible to raise up the despairing to the hope of beatitude. For how could that power withstand thy power, which from thy flesh took flesh at the first? For thou comest before that golden gate of man's reconciliation, not only praying, but commanding - the Lady, not the handmaid. Let thy nature move thee; let thy power, for the more powerful thou art, the more merciful thou oughtest to be. It is to the glory of thy power that it will not avenge injury where it may.
Return (thirdly) by thy love. I know, O Lady! that thou art most benignant, and that thou lovest us with an invincible love, whom in thee and through thee thy Son and thy God loved with an exceeding love. Who knows how often thou dost soften the anger of the Judge, when the virtue of justice comes forth from the presence of the Godhead!
Return (fourthly) by thine onliness. In thy hands are the treasures of the mercies of God, and thou art chosen as the only one to whom grace is granted. God forbid that thy hand should be idle, since thou dost seek occasion to save the miserable and to pour forth mercy; for thy glory is not diminished but increased when penitents, justified by pardon, are assumed unto glory. Return, then, O Sulamitess! - which means despised one - whose soul the sword transpierced, who wast known as the wife of a carpenter. But why? 'That we may behold thee.' Our highest glory, after the vision of God, is to see thee, to cling close to thee, and to abide in the strength of thy protection. Hearken to us, for thy Son honours thee by denying thee naught, who is God blessed for evermore.
Let us pray
O God! who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for Thy Son, we suppliantly beseech thee that, celebrating the apparitions of our Blessed Lady, we may attain to health of both mind and body. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen,
Magnificat
My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid; for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because He that is mighty hath done great things to me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is, from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him. He hath showed might in His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel, His servant, being mindful of His mercy. As He spoke to our fathers - to Abraham and to His seed, for ever. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Salve Regina!
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn, then, most gracious Advocate! thine eyes of mercy towards us, and, after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God! That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Petition
We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God! despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin!
- from The May-Book of the Breviary, by Father John Fitzpatrick