Happy birthday BVM!

Image is from http://www.turnbacktogod.com/virgin-mary-pictures-01/

Blessed Virgin Mary, please share with me your uncanny ability to show strength in silence. Teach me how to show conviction without the dramarama. You are who I want to become as a mother and wife. And I'm failing miserably. Visit me more often.

I still sing this in my head, well just the first two lines because I never memorized the rest. I was very young when we studied the song and the sweet nun didn't give us enough time to practice. And I auditioned and failed... so there's pain there. Damnit (sorry), I really wanted to be part of the choir.

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae,

vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.

ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae,

ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes

in hac lacrimarum valle.

Seriously though, the prayer makes more sense to me now.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,

our life, our sweetness and our hope.

To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;

to thee do we send up our sighs,

mourning and weeping in this valley of tears

Turn then, most gracious advocate,

thine eyes of mercy toward us;

and after this our exile,

show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.