“There is only one thing that really does grow old: not age, but sin.
Sin makes (us) old, because it fossilizes the heart. It closes it, makes it inert, it makes it fade. But the (woman) full of grace is empty of sin.”
Pope Francis
Pope Francis’s guide to beauty (2017): https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/beauty-advice-from-pope-francis-like-mary-be-virtuous-52232
AddThis Sharing Buttons
Vatican City, Dec 8, 2017 / 04:37 am ().- On Friday’s Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis offered his own ‘beauty secret’ – with Mary as model – saying beauty does not come from age or appearance, but from living a virtuous life rooted in scripture.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, though a simple and humble person, “lived a beautiful life,” the Pope said Dec. 8, asking “what was her secret?”
The answer can be found in the story of the Annunciation, he said. “In many paintings, Mary is depicted sitting in front of the angel with a small book. The book is scripture.”
“The Word of God was her secret: close to her heart, it then took flesh within her womb. Remaining with God, dialoguing with Him in every circumstance, Mary made her life beautiful.”
In his special Angelus address for the feast day, Pope Francis emphasized that what makes someone’s life beautiful is “not appearance, not what passes, but the heart focused on God.”
Francis noted how Mary came from a simple family and lived in a humble fashion in Nazareth, which was an almost unknown village. She was not famous. “Our Lady did not even have a comfortable life,” he said. Yet the angel greets her with the words, “hail, full of grace!”
The Church extols the Mother of God as “all beautiful,” or “tota pulchra,” in Latin, the Pope continued. This is because her beauty is not found in her outward appearance, but in her total freedom from sin.
“There is only one thing that really does grow old: not age, but sin,” he emphasized. “Sin makes (us) old, because it fossilizes the heart. It closes it, makes it inert, it makes it fade. But the (woman) full of grace is empty of sin.”
Let us ask for her help to remain free of sin, he concluded, so that we too can live a beautiful life, saying “yes,” to God.
After reciting the Angelus, Pope Francis noted how later in the afternoon he will visit Rome’s Piazza di Spagna to venerate the statue of the Immaculate Conception overlooking the Spanish Steps.
He asked those gathered to join him spiritually in this act, “which expresses filial devotion to our heavenly Mother.”
The statue of Our Lady, which sits atop a nearly 40-foot-high column, was dedicated Dec. 8, 1857, just a few years after the Catholic Church adopted the doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Since the 1950s, it has been a custom for popes to venerate the statue for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. ….
[End of quote]
O SANCTISSIMA
O Sanctissima O Piissima (1)
Dulcis Virgo Maria
Mater amta intemerata
Ora ora pro nobis
Tota pulchra es O Maria
Et macula non est in te
Mater anmata intemerata
Ora ora pro nobis
Sicut lilium inter spinas(2)
Sic Maria inter filias
Mater amata intemerata
Ora ora pro nobis
In miseria in angustia
Ora Virgo pro nobis
Pro nobis ora in mortis hora
Ora ora pro nobis
Tu solatium et refugium
Virgo Mater Maria
Quidquid optamus
per te speramus (3)
Ora, ora pro nobis
Translation of the Latin
O most holy
O most devoted
Sweet Virgin Mary
Mother with love unswerving
Pray, o pray for us.
You are true beauty,
O Mary
And there is no stain of sin in you
Mother with love unswerving
Pray, o pray for us
Like the lily among the thorns
So are you O Mary among women(4)
Mother with love unswerving
Pray, o pray for us
In our misery and anguish
Pray for us, O Virgin
Pray for us in the hour of our death
Pray, o pray for us
O comfort and refuge
Virgin Mother Mary
Whatever we seek, we aspire to through you
Pray, o pray for us
