Loving Mother of the Redeemer
Loving Mother of the Redeemer,
open gate of heaven and star of the sea,
come quickly to help your people,
who fall and long to rise again.
You bore your holy Creator, while all creation wondered,
a virgin before and after,
who heard Gabriel's greeting:
have mercy on us sinners.
Text: our own text or translation, written for Verso.
In Latin
Alma Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli
porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti,
surgere qui curat, populo: tu quae genuisti,
natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem,
Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore
sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere.
About this prayer
One of the four great antiphons to Mary, attributed to Hermann of Reichenau (eleventh century). It is sung at the end of Compline in Advent and Christmastide, from the first Sunday of Advent to the Presentation of the Lord on 2 February.