Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Seven prayers for the Hours, each followed by a response asking Mary’s help.
Historical edition. Historical claims and instructions are preserved as historical context.
At Matins
O MOST compassionate Jesus, I praise thee with the tuneful praise which thine own sweetest Heart gives forth, for the innocence of that most spotless virginity whereby thy peerless and ever-blessed Mother was a Virgin in her conception of thee, a Virgin when she brought thee forth, and ever remained a Virgin most inviolate after thy sacred birth; imitating thus thine own innocence, when in the early dawn thou wast seized and bound for the redemption of our captive race, and buffeted and smitten, and cruelly and piteously assailed with contumely and manifold reproach.
The following prayer should be said at all the Hours:
O MOTHER of all blessedness, peerless sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, I praise and greet thee through the sweetest Heart of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and thy most loving Son; beseeching thee to succour us in all our needs and distresses, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
At Prime
I PRAISE thee, O most compassionate Jesus, through thine own sweetest Heart, for that placid deep humility whereby the Virgin undefiled became day by day more fitted and more worthy to conceive thee; imitating thus thy humility, when thou, who wilt come to be the Judge of the living and the dead, didst at the first hour of the day condescend to be judged by a Gentile and an alien for the redemption of the human race.
O MOTHER of all blessedness, peerless sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, I praise and greet thee through the sweetest Heart of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and thy most loving Son; beseeching thee to succour us in all our needs and distresses, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
At Tierce
I PRAISE thee, O most compassionate Jesus, through thine own sweetest Heart, for that most ardent yearning desire whereby the Virgin full of pity drew thee, the Son of God, from the bosom of the eternal Father into her most pure womb; imitating thus that most impetuous desire wherewith thou didst desire our salvation, when thou wast scourged with cruel thongs and crowned with thorns, and didst condescend at the third hour of the day to bear thy cross of ignominy on thy wearied bleeding shoulder with uncomplaining meekness and patience.
O MOTHER of all blessedness, peerless sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, I praise and greet thee through the sweetest Heart of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and thy most loving Son; beseeching thee to succour us in all our needs and distresses, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
At Sext
I PRAISE thee, O most compassionate Jesus, through thine own sweetest Heart, for that steadfast and undismayed hope wherewith the heavenly Virgin strove unceasingly, with fixed will and holy intention, to praise thee; imitating thus that eager yearning wherewith, when hanging high on the tree of thy cross, and amid the exceeding bitterness of thy death, thou didst long with all thy whole soul for the redemption of the human race, and didst therefore cry: I thirst. For what didst thou thirst, O loving Jesus, but for the salvation of the souls of men, for which thou wouldst have joyfully endured yet more bitter and consuming anguish.
O MOTHER of all blessedness, peerless sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, I praise and greet thee through the sweetest Heart of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and thy most loving Son; beseeching thee to succour us in all our needs and distresses, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
At None
I PRAISE thee, O most compassionate Jesus, through thine own sweetest Heart, for that most ardent mutual love which united the divine Heart to that of the Virgin undefiled, and which most intimately and inseparably conjoined thy all-glorious Divinity with thy Humanity in her most pure womb; so that it was thus given her to imitate thee in the exceeding greatness of thy love, thou, the Life of all that live, didst at the ninth hour bow thy head in bitterest death upon the cross for our redemption.
O MOTHER of all blessedness, peerless sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, I praise and greet thee through the sweetest Heart of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and thy most loving Son; beseeching thee to succour us in all our needs and distresses, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
At Vespers
I PRAISE thee, O most compassionate Jesus, through thine own sweetest Heart, for that most firm and rooted faith whereby the blessed Virgin stood alone, unshrinking, beneath the cross, when thine Apostles had forsaken thee and all had fled in dismay; imitating thus thy faithfulness in death, when thou didst go in quest of thine own even into Limbus, and drawing them thence, with the strong right hand of thy mercy, didst bear them up to the joys of thy Paradise.
O MOTHER of all blessedness, peerless sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, I praise and greet thee through the sweetest Heart of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and thy most loving Son; beseeching thee to succour us in all our needs and distresses, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
At Compline
I PRAISE thee, O most compassionate Jesus, through thine own sweetest Heart, for the incomparable perseverance wherewith thy most blessed Mother persevered in virtue and in good works even to the end; imitating thus thine unresting, unwearying zeal in the work of our redemption, when, having obtained eternal redemption for us by thy most bitter death, thou didst not shrink from giving thine incorruptible Body to the grave, after the manner of men; that thou mightest show us that there was no abyss of humiliation from which thou wouldst shrink, to effect our complete consolation.
O MOTHER of all blessedness, peerless sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, I praise and greet thee through the sweetest Heart of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and thy most loving Son; beseeching thee to succour us in all our needs and distresses, and at the hour of our death. Amen.