These hymns from the Common of the BVM could be used on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

For the most part the hymns assigned to this Solemnity in the LH are late and somewhat less pleasing. The 1963 Monastic Breviary for this day uses Praeclara custos Virginum (in my opinion the best of the hymns provided for the feast) for Matins but O gloriosa Domina for Lauds and Ave, maris stella for Vespers. 

Vespers: Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary: 9^th Century?

Ave, maris stella,

Dei mater alma,

atque semper virgo,

felix cæli porta.

Sumens illud «Ave»

Gabriélis ore,

funda nos in pace,

mutans Evæ nomen.

Solve vincla reis,

profer lumen cæcis,

mala nostra pelle,

bona cuncta posce.

Monstra te esse matrem,

sumat per te precem

qui pro nobis natus

tulit esse tuus.

Virgo singuláris,

inter omnes mitis,

nos culpis solútos

mites fac et castos.

Vitam præsta puram,

iter para tutum,

ut vidéntes Iesum

semper collætémur.

Sit laus Deo Patri,

summo Christo decus,

Spirítui Sancto

honor, tribus unus. Amen.

Hail, Star of the Sea, loving Mother of God and ever a virgin, fair gate of heaven. You who received the “Ave’ from the mouth of Gabriel, establish us in peace, reversing the name of “Eva”. Break the chains of sin, give light to the blind, drive away our evil, ask for us all that is good. Show yourself a mother, may he who was born for us and humbled himself to be your Son, receive our prayer through you.  Virgin alone, meek beyond all others, cause our sins to be absolved, make us meek and chaste. Make our life unsullied, our journey safe, that we may see Jesus and with you praise him forever. Amen.

Lauds

O gloriósa dómina

excélsa super sídera,

qui te creávit próvide,

lactas sacráto úbere.

Quod Eva tristis ábstulit,

tu reddis almo gérmine;

intrent ut astra flébiles,

sternis benígna sémitam.

Tu regis alti iánua

et porta lucis fúlgida;

vitam datam per Vírginem,

gentes redémptæ, pláudite.

O glorious Lady exalted above the stars; He, who providentially created you, you nurse with your sacred breast. What sad Eve took away you return by your nourishing seed; that weak men might go to the stars you kindly provide a path. You are the door of the high King, the brightly shining gate to light; applaud, nations redeemed, that life is given through a virgin.

Correction: missing 4th stanza of hymn for Lauds: Immaculate Conception

At Lauds:  15^th Century ?

In plausu grati cárminis

adsit nova lætítia,

dum Dei matris Vírginis

sumit vita princípia.

María, mundi glória,

lucis ætérnæ fília,

te præservávit Fílius

ab omni labe pénitus.

Originális mácula

cuncta respérsit sæcula;

sola post Natum vítiis

numquam contácta díceris.

Caput serpéntis cállidi

tuo pede contéritur;

fastus gigántis pérfidi

David funda devíncitur.

Colúmba mitis, húmilis,

fers, carens felle críminis,

signum Dei cleméntiæ,

ramum viréntis grátiæ.

Patri sit et Paráclito

tuóque Nato glória,

qui sanctitátis únicæ

te munerárunt grátia. Amen.

There is a new joy in striking up a song of thanks, when the Virgin Mother of God first begins her life. Mary, the glory of the world, the daughter of eternal light, your Son completely preserved you within from any fall.  The original stain has fallen on every generation; Only you with your Son are said to have never contracted sin. The head of the crafty snake is crushed under foot; with his sling, David conquered the pride of the pride of the perfidious giant. Gentle and humble dove, lacking the bitterness of sin, a sign of God’s mercy, bearing the branch of flourishing grace.  Glory to the Father and to the Paraclete and to your Son, who granted you the grace of a singular holiness. Amen.

THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT: Homily of St. Gregory the Great: The Forerunner

What was it that you expected to see when you went out into the wilderness? . . . A prophet? Yes, and something more, I tell you, than a prophet. The role of a prophet is to predict future events, not to exhibit them. John is therefore more than a prophet, since he shows by actually pointing out him whom, as prophet, he foretold.  If then we say that the name of prophet is not good enough for him, what shall we be able to say that is worthy of him? Listen: It is of him it is written: See where I am sending an angel of mine, to make the way ready for my coming! In reality "angel" means one who announces. Then it is with good reason that John, sent to announce the supreme Judge, receives the name of "angel", for his name should not be unworthy of his mission. It is a great name, truly, but his life was not less great.

And yet you too, if you will, can deserve to receive this great name. Each one of you according to your capacity, according to the measure  of grace which you have received from God, can divert your neighbor from a shameful life and exhort him to live well, reminding those who go astray that there is an eternal recompense and eternal pains of hell: when by your words, you thus announce the truths of faith, you certainly fulfil the role of an "angel". And no one can say: "I should not know how to warn another, I am not capable of instructing others. " Employ all your abilities, for, having neglected what has been given you, you run the risk of being thrown into torments. The servant in the parable had but one talent, which, instead of using, he chose to hide. If then you think you have made some progress, strive to lead others to do the same; let the desire not to walk alone in the way of God grow in you he whose heart has the grace to hear the call of divine love does not refuse to give to his neighbor the alms of a good word. Think how rapidly time passes, meditate on the severity of the Judge who is to come. It is he, the sovereign Judge, on whom you should fix your heart; it is he whom you must show to the souls of those around you. In this manner, if you do not fail to announce his coming as far as means allow, you will deserve to be counted by him, like John, in the number of his "angels. "

Collects: Advent II

Sunday II

Omnípotens et miséricors Deus, in tui occúrsum Fílii festinántes nulla ópera terréni actus impédiant, sed sapiéntiæ cæléstis erudítio nos fáciat eius esse consórtes.

Almighty and merciful God, may no works of earthly actions imped us from hastening to the coming of your Son, but rather may the instruction of heavenly wisdom make us co-heirs with him.

Monday

Dirigatur, quaesumus, Domine, in conspectu tuo nostrae petitionis oratio, ut ad magnum incarnationis Unigeniti tui mysterium nostrae vota servitutis illibata puritate perveniant.

We beseech you, O Lord, that the prayer of our petition may be in your sight, that the intentions of our service may be blameless and pure before the great mystery of the incarnation of your Only-Begotten Son.

Tuesday 

Deus, qui salutáre tuum cunctis terræ fínibus declarásti, tríbue, quǽsumus, ut nativitátis eius glóriam lætánter præstolémur.

O God, who declared your salvation to the ends of the earth, grant, we beseech you, that we may gladly proclaim the joy of your nativity.

Wednesday 

Omnípotens Deus, qui nos prǽcipis iter Christo Dómino præparáre, concéde propítius, ut nullis infirmitátibus fatigémur, qui cæléstis médici consolántem præséntiam sustinémus.

Almighty God, who command us to prepare the way for Christ the Lord, graciously grant that we may not be wearied by any infirmity, we, who are sustained by the consoling presence of the heavenly physician.

Thursday 

Excita, Dómine, corda nostra ad præparándas Unigéniti tui vias, ut, per eius advéntum, purificátis tibi méntibus servíre mereámur.

Stir up, O Lord, our hearts, to prepare the ways of your Only-Begotten, that through his advent we may be made worthy to serve you with purified minds.

Friday 

Concéde, quǽsumus, omnípotens Deus, plebi tuæ advéntum Unigéniti tui cum summa vigilántia exspectáre, ut, sicut ipse dócuit auctor nostræ salútis, accénsis lampádibus in eius occúrsum vigilántes

properémus.

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that with great vigilance your people may await the coming of your Only-Begotten, that as he himself, the author of our salvation, taught, with lamps lighted, we watching, might hasten to his coming.

Saturday 

Oriátur, quǽsumus, omnípotens Deus, in córdibus nostris splendor glóriæ tuæ, ut, omni noctis obscuritáte subláta, fílios nos esse lucis Unigéniti tui maniféstet advéntus.

We beseech you, Almighty God, that the glory of your splendor may arise in our hearts, that with all the darkness of night having been taken away, the advent of your Only-Begotten Son may reveal us to be sons of light.

The Rev'd. Mr Ronald Knox on the Immaculate Conception

My favorite argument for the Immaculate Conception I learned long before I became a Catholic, while still an Anglican. Fr. Knox was a mischievous lad in his Anglican days, probably much more so than after he converted. Not only were Anglicans permitted to believe in the Immaculate Conception, they were required to do so by the notoriously protestant 39 Articles.

The Rev'd. Mr Ronald Knox on the Immaculate Conception

Mary in the XXXIX Articles

[Sermon preached at the Church of St James the Less, Plymouth, on the Feast of the Assumption before Fr. Knox's conversion to the Roman Church.]     

Most of us, I take it, believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son 0f God, is not only God, but man. So at least we are told in the Creed, Quicumque vult. Now if you will look at the ninth of the XXXIX Articles of Religion, you will find that Original Sin, in every person born into the world, deserves God's wrath and damnation. Are we therefore to conclude that Jesus Christ, being a man, was born into the world deserving God's wrath and damnation? If not, then we must suppose that some special dispensation of the grace of God broke off the entail of Original Sin, and prevented its reaching him. And in the fifteenth Article it is laid down that Christ was void of sin, both in his flesh and in his spirit. At what point, then, was the entail of Original Sin broken off? Of course, it might be open to us to imagine that it was broken off at the precise moment of the conception of Jesus in the womb of his Mother. But that view would be unscriptural, because there is no reference to any such process in the promises made to Mary. It would also be untraditional, for it is not the view of the holy Fathers of the Church.

It would also be contrary to reason. The Article tells us that Jesus was void of sin in his flesh as in his spirit. And in order that he might be void of sin in his flesh, he was not born by the ordinary process of nature, but of a virgin, who remained a virgin in her child- bearing. Now, is it not unreasonable and materialistic to suppose that Jesus would not allow his Mother to be impure in her flesh, but would allow her to be impure in her spirit? That he would insist on her abstaining from the lawful use of holy matrimony, and yet would not insist on that true purity in her, which is the purity of the heart? It seems, rather, that she was absolutely pure in her soul as in her body, that Mary, like Jesus, and because of Jesus, and in virtue of the foreseen merits of the Passion of Jesus, was void of original sin. And that, I suppose, is why our Prayer Book Collect for Christmas Day is careful to describe Jesus as born, not merely of a virgin, but of a pure virgin.

And if Mary was without Original Sin, she was also without Actual Sin. For if she, born like Eve sinless, had sinned like Eve, then it would have been a second fall of man. By her disobedience she would have contracted the guilt of Original Sin afresh, and so Jesus would have been born in sin after all. Someone might still refuse to call her sinless, on the ground that she may have sinned after Jesus' birth. I only ask, is that likely? That she, who had refrained from sin in obedience to the God she had never seen, would have sinned when she had Jesus in her arms, Jesus at her breast, when she had seen him hang on the cross, and ascend into heaven?

Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception

All humanity, in all the splendor of its immaculate nobility, receives its former beauty. The shame of sin had obscured the splendor and charm of human nature. But when the Mother of the One who is Beauty par excellence is born, this nature recovers in its person its old privileges and is formed according to a perfect model and truly worthy of God ... Today begins the reform of our nature and the aged world, submitted to a completely divine transformation, receives the first fruits of the second creation. - Saint Andrew of Crete, Sermon I on the Nativity of Mary.

At I & II Vespers: 18^th Century

Connelly: Benedict XIV in 1751 approved this hymn for use at Matins in the Office of the Purity of the Blessed Virgin in Portugal but this does not prove he wrote the hymn.

Præclára custos vírginum

Deíque mater ínnuba, (1)

cæléstis aulæ iánua,

spes nostra, cæli gáudium;

Inter rubéta lílium,  (2)

colúmba formosíssima, (3)

e stirpe virga gérminans

nostro medélam vúlneri;

Turris dracóni impérvia, (4)

amíca stella náufragis, (5)

defénde nos a fráudibus

tuáque luce dírige.

Erróris umbras díscute,

syrtes dolósas ámove,

fluctus tot inter, déviis

tutam reclúde sémitam.

Quæ labe nostræ oríginis

intácta splendes única,

serpéntis artes æmuli

elúde vindex ínclita.

Patri sit et Paráclito

tuóque Nato glória,

qui sanctitátis únicæ

te munerárunt grátia. Amen.

1.       Innuba this line read originally intacta mater numinis; innuba ‘unmarried’ is a much weaker word than intacta but probably what is rejected here is the classicalism in the mode of Urban VIII.

2.      rubeta thorns, the red unripe fruit of bramble bushes.

3.      Canticle of Canticles 2.10, 5.2.

4.      The tower of David, Cant. 4.4.

5.      ‘a welcome star to the shipwrecked’.

Glorious guardian of virgins, pure Mother of God, door of the heavenly courts, our Hope, the joy of heaven.  Lily among thorns, most beautiful dove, a branch springing from the rod of Jesse, the cure for our wound. Tower impervious to the dragon, friendly star to the shipwrecked, defend us from deceit, and direct us by your light. Dispel the shadows of darkness, remove the treacherous shoals, in the midst of so many waves show to the lost a safe path. You who alone shine brightly, free from the fall of our origin; an illustrious vindicator you escape the envious arts of the serpent.  Glory to the Father and to the Paraclete and to your Son, who granted you the grace of a singular holiness. Amen.

At the Office of Readings: Leo XIII? (previously used at Matins: The Apparition of the Immaculate Virgin at Lourdes)

Te dícimus præcónio,

mater Dei puríssima; (1)

nostris benígna láudibus

tuam repénde grátiam.

Sontes Adámi pósteri, (2)

infécta proles gígnimur;

labis patérnæ néscia (3)

tu sola, Virgo, créderis.

Caput dracónis ínvidi

tu cónteris vestígio,

gerísque sola glóriam (4)

intaminátæ oríginis.

Nostræ decus propáginis,

quæ tollis Evæ oppróbrium,

tu nos tuére súpplices,

tu nos labántes érige. (5)

Serpéntis antíqui potens

astus retúnde et ímpetus,

ut cælitum perénnibus

per te fruámur gáudiis.

Patri sit et Paráclito

tuóque Nato glória,

qui sanctitátis únicæ

te munerárunt grátia. Amen.

1.       Original: intacta mater numinis; 2. Sontes: sons, guilty; 3. nescia: free from; 4. Original: et sola gloriam refers; 5. labentes: those who totter, waver;

Mother of God most pure, we sing your praise; kindly return our lauds with your grace. Sinners, the offspring of the posterity of Adam, are brought forth corrupted; you alone are believed to know no fall of this father. The head of the envious dragon you crushed under your feet and you alone have the glory of an uncontaminated beginning. The honor of our race who took away the shame of Eve: watch over us who pray to you and raise up those of us who have fallen. Powerfully blunt the wiles and attacks of the ancient serpent that through you we may enjoy the eternal happiness of heaven. Glory to the Father and to the Paraclete and to your Son, who granted you the grace of a singular holiness. Amen.

At Lauds:  15^th Century ?

In plausu grati cárminis

adsit nova lætítia,

dum Dei matris Vírginis

sumit vita princípia.

María, mundi glória,

lucis ætérnæ fília,

te præservávit Fílius

ab omni labe pénitus.

Originális mácula

cuncta respérsit sæcula;

sola post Natum vítiis

numquam contácta díceris.

Caput serpéntis cálidi

tuo pede contéritur;

fastus gigántis pérfidi

David funda devíncitur.

Colúmba mitis, húmilis,

fers, carens felle críminis,

signum Dei cleméntiæ,

ramum viréntis grátiæ.

Patri sit et Paráclito

tuóque Nato glória,

qui sanctitátis únicæ

te munerárunt grátia. Amen.

There is a new joy in striking up a song of thanks, when the Virgin Mother of God first begins her life. Mary, the glory of the world, the daughter of eternal light, your Son completely preserved you within from any fall.  The original stain has fallen on every generation; Only you with your Son are said to have never contracted sin. Gentle and humble dove, lacking the bitterness of sin, a sign of God’s mercy, bearing the branch of flourishing grace.  Glory to the Father and to the Paraclete and to your Son, who granted you the grace of a singular holiness. Amen.

St. Augustine on seeing Ambrose reading in silence (Confessions 6.3)

St. Augustine on seeing Ambrose reading in silence (Confessions 6.3)

Nor had I come yet to groan in my prayers that thou wouldst help me. My mind was wholly intent on knowledge and eager for disputation. Ambrose himself I esteemed a happy man, as the world counted happiness, because great personages held him in honor. Only his celibacy appeared to me a painful burden. But what hope he cherished, what struggles he had against the temptations that beset his high station, what solace in adversity, and what savory joys thy bread possessed for the hidden mouth of his heart when feeding on it, I could neither conjecture nor experience.

Nor did he know my own frustrations, nor the pit of my danger. For I could not request of him what I wanted as I wanted it, because I was debarred from hearing and speaking to him by crowds of busy people to whose infirmities, he devoted himself. And when he was not engaged with them - which was never for long at a time - he was either refreshing his body with necessary food or his mind with reading.

Now, as he read, his eyes glanced over the pages and his heart searched out the sense, but his voice and tongue were silent. Often when we came to his room - for no one was forbidden to enter, nor was it his custom that the arrival of visitors should be announced to him - we would see him thus reading to himself. After we had sat for a long time in silence - for who would dare interrupt one so intent? - we would then depart, realizing that he was unwilling to be distracted in the little time he could gain for the recruiting of his mind, free from the clamor of other men's business. Perhaps he was fearful lest, if the author he was studying should express himself vaguely, some doubtful and attentive hearer would ask him to expound it or discuss some of the more abstruse questions, so that he could not get over as much material as he wished, if his time was occupied with others. And even a truer reason for his reading to himself might have been the care for preserving his voice, which was very easily weakened. Whatever his motive was in so doing, it was doubtless, in such a man, a good one.