ST. ANSELM'S PRAYER TO MARY
TO SEEK HER LOVE AND CHRIST'S

Elizabeth Wall
Brown University

Queen of the angels, Mistress of the world, Mother of the one who purifies the earth, I confess, since my heart is too filthy, that it is rightly mortified to reach out to you who are so umblemished, nor is it worthily able to touch your purity by grasping so much. Therefore, Mother of the illumination of my heart, nurse of the prosperity of my passion, my whole heart beseeches you with all that it can Grant this to me, Lady, yield to me, relieve me, most potent one, that the baseness of my thoughts be purged, and my vileness be enlightened, that my coolness be aroused and my numb senses be awakened, as far as your sumptuous inviolability is exalted above all, after the greatest of all, your Son, through your omnipotent Son, because of your glorious Son, by your Son. Thus above all else, after the Lord who is my God as well as the God of everyone, your Son, may my soul appreciate and worship you. And may my heart also love you and plead for your passion, which I, imperfect, do not long for, but by which, having been formed and saved by your Son, I ought to be atoned for and awakened.