Marian
Quem terra, pontus, aethera (The God whom earth and sea and sky)
Marian prayer · Latin text
A Marian hymn by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609), Bishop of Poitiers, used in the Liturgy of the Hours as the hymn for the Office of Readings in the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary and daily in the Little Office. Pope Urban VIII's revision reads “sidera” for “aethera”. The English is the translation of John Mason Neale (1818-1866), with a different final couplet.
The God whom earth, and sea, and sky adore, and laud, and magnify, who o'er their threefold fabric reigns, the Virgin's spotless womb contains. The God whose will by moon, and sun, and all things in due course is done, is borne upon a Maiden's breast, by fullest heavenly grace possessed. How blest that Mother, in whose shrine the great Artificer Divine, whose hand contains the earth and sky, vouchsafed, as in His ark, to lie. Blest, in the message Gabriel brought; blest, by the work the Spirit wrought; from whom the great Desire of earth took human flesh and human birth. All honor, laud, and glory be, o Jesu Virgin-born, to Thee, whom with the Father we adore, and Holy Ghost for evermore. Amen.
When it is prayed
- office-of-readings
- marian-feasts
- little-office
