Virgin Most Pure

MAELLA
Mariano Salvador de Immaculate Conception 
1781

CCC 506:

 Mary is a virgin because her virginity is the sign of her faith "unadulterated by any doubt," and of her undivided gift of herself to God's will. It is her faith that enables her to become the mother of the Savior: "Mary is more blessed because she embraces faith in Christ than because she conceives the flesh of Christ."

Lumen Gentium 63: By reason of the gift and role of divine maternity, by which she is united with her Son, the Redeemer, and with His singular graces and functions, the Blessed Virgin is also intimately united with the Church. As St. Ambrose taught, the Mother of God is a type of the Church in the order of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ. For in the mystery of the Church, which is itself rightly called mother and virgin, the Blessed Virgin stands out in eminent and singular fashion as exemplar both of virgin and mother. By her belief and obedience, not knowing man but overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, as the new Eve she brought forth on earth the very Son of the Father, showing an undefiled faith, not in the word of the ancient serpent, but in that of God's messenger. The Son whom she brought forth is He whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, namely the faithful, in whose birth and education she cooperates with a maternal love.

Hail and blessed be

 the hour and moment

 in which the Son of God 

was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, 

at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. 

In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! 

to hear my prayer and grant my desires, 

through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, 

and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.