didst draw down from the bosom of the Eternal Father the Divine Word into thine own pure bosom. O draw, then, my heart to God; and with God draw grace into my heart, that I may ever bless thy Fiat, and with devotion cry, O mighty Fiat! O Fiat efficacious!
O Fiat to be venerated above all Fiats! Ave Maria.
4. Mary, mighty Virgin, thou, on thy Annunciation, wast found by Gabriel the archangel on thy watch, quick to do God’s will and correspond with the desires of the august Trinity for man’s redemption, giving thy consent in order to redeem the world. Let me, whatever happens, good or ill, turn ever to my God, and with resignation say, Fiat, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum (Be it unto me according to thy word.) Ave Maria.
5. I see that thy obedience, holiest Mary, wrought so close a bond between thy God and thee, that all creation never shall know again union so fair and perfect. (Magis Deo conjungi nisi fieret Deus, non votuit: “ She could not have been more united to God except by being God herself.” — B. Albert Magnus.) My soul within me faints to see how sin hath severed me from God. Help me, then, gentle Mother, with true heart to do fit penance for my sins, that thy own loving Jesus may yet once more live in me and I in him. Ave Maria.
6. Beholding, holiest Mary, how by reason of thy modesty thou wast troubled when Gabriel the archangel stood before thee in thy house, I also when I come before thee am troubled for my monstrous pride; wherefore do thou, in thy incomparable humility, “which brought forth God for men, reopened paradise, and let the captive souls go free from hell beneath” (Qute Deum hominibus peperil, paradisum aperuit, et animas ab inferno liberavit —
