Monday, 10 December 2012

You are Solomon's ivory throne...


Conductus: O maria o felix
O maria   o felix puerpera
mater pia   cuius suxit ubera
qui creavit sidera:   munera
de te fluunt dulcia   
spiritus sancti cratera.
Aqua viva   clausa semper ianua
progressiva   stella non occidua
ficus sed non fatua   rigua
paradisi pascua
balsamus myrtus oliva,
Ioseph spica    humus de qua vipera
per quam sicca   ione perit hedera
sanans anguis vulnera   partica
funda tu davitica
pariens cedrum myrica,
Salomonis   thronus es eburneus
visionis   electrinus urceus
david sitim satians   puteus
tu septenus cereus
donis septenis radians,
Iacob scala   fac me celum scandere
mundi mala   carnem satan fugere.
Tollens eve misere   scandala
pietatis ubere
gratie fove sub ala.

O Mary, O happy childbearer,
holy mother who nursed 
the one who created the stars: gifts
of sweetness flow from you, 
chalice of the holy spirit. 
Living water, flowing through a door
ever shut, star never setting,
fruitful fig tree, watered
pasture of paradise,
balsam, myrtle, olive,
Joseph's ears of corn, earth whence came the worm
by which the dry gourd of Jonah perished,* 
staff that heals the serpent's bites,
you, David's sling,
shrub bearing a cedar;
You are Solomon's ivory throne,
vision's   amber water jar
the well that slakes David's thirst,
you sevenfold waxen light
shining forth with seven gifts,
Jacob's ladder: make me climb the heavens;
make me flee the world's evils, the flesh and Satan.
Removing the obstacles of Eve's misery,
feed us at thy holy breast
under the wings of grace. 
*[Jonah 4:6-8]



And one more for Our Dear Queen this week. Hail to Thee, O Mary, for being the Door to Life.  2002 album La Bele Marie - Songs to the Virgin from 13th-century France.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for the Americas.