WEDNESDAY Prime

God, come to my assistance
Lord, make haste to help me
Your help, propitious Mother, lend us
And from the dreadful foe defend us.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever. Amen.

Byzantine Prokimenon verse
Because He has regarded the humility of His handmaid; for, behold, from henceforth
all generations shall call me blessed.

Hail, Virginal wisdom; hail, mansion of God,
Where sevenfold pillars befit his abode.
All stately without and all perfect within,
He chose Him a dwelling undarkened by sin;
For even before your miraculous birth
you were free from the stain that has sullied the earth.
Mother of all saints Living and dead,
New star that shone Over Israel's head
Sovereign of angels, Terror of hell,
Be you our refuge, Who love you so well.

In His Holy Spirit He created Her
And exalted Her above all His works.

Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy.
And according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my iniquity.

Wash me yet more from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my iniquity,
and my sin is always before me.

To you only have I sinned,
and have done evil before you:

that you may be justified in your words,
and may overcome when you are judged.

For behold I was conceived in iniquities;
and in sins did my mother conceive me.

For behold you have loved truth:
the uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom you have made manifest to me.

You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed:
you shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.

To my hearing you shall give joy and gladness:
and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.

Turn away your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

Create a clean heart in me, O God:
and renew a right spirit within my bowels.

Cast me not away from your face;
and take not your holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of your salvation,
and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.

I will teach the unjust your ways:
and the wicked shall be converted to you.

Deliver me from blood, O God,
God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall extol your justice.

O Lord, you will open my lips:
and my mouth shall declare your praise.

For if you had desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it:
with burnt offerings you will not be delighted.

A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit:
a contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise.

Deal favorably, O Lord, in your good will with Zion;
that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.

Then shall you accept the sacrifice of justice,
oblations and whole burnt offerings:
then shall they lay calves upon your altar.

The Trisagion
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever. Amen.

Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us.

It is truly right to bless you, O God-bearing One, as the ever-blessed and immaculate Mother of our God. More honorable than the cherubim and by far more glorious than the seraphim; ever a virgin, you gave birth to God the Word, O true Mother of God, we magnify you.

Angel's prayer at Fatima
O my God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee.

St. Eugenio Cantera
I bow before you, Virgin of virgins, resting-place of the divine Bridegroom, temple of eternal Wisdom, sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, palace of the Blessed Trinity, Mother full of love and tenderness, fountain of beauty, wellspring of wonders, golden key of God's kingdom, you are the admiration of angels, the joy of the human family. Who can ever do justice to your glory, to your Queenship of grace?

Blessed are you, O virgin Mary, for you carried the Creator of the world in your womb.

Psalm 108
My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready:
I will sing, and will give praise, with my glory.

Arise, my glory; arise, psaltery and harp:
I will arise in the morning early.

I will praise you, O Lord, among the people:
and I will sing unto you among the nations.

For your mercy is great above the heavens:
and your truth even unto the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
and your glory over all the earth:
that your beloved may be delivered.

Save with your right hand and hear me.
God has spoken in his holiness.

I will rejoice, and I will divide Shechem
and I will mete out the vale of tabernacles.

Gilead is mine: and Manasseh is mine:
and Ephraim the protection of my head.

Judah is my king:
Moab the pot of my hope.

Over Edom I will stretch out my shoe:
the aliens are become my friends.

Who will bring me into the strong city?
who will lead me into Edom?

Will not you, O God, who has cast us off?
and will not you, O God, go forth with our armies?

O grant us help from trouble:
for vain is the help of man.

Through God we shall do mightily:
and he will bring our enemies to nothing.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant in her womb leaped for joy, and she
was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 61
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God:
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation:
and with the robe of justice he has covered me,
as a bridegroom decked with a crown,
and as a bride adorned with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth her bud,
and as the garden causes her seed to shoot forth:
so shall the Lord God make justice to spring forth,
and praise before all the nations.

For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace,
and for the sake of Jerusalem,
I will not rest till her just one come forth as brightness,
and her savior be lighted as a lamp.

And the Gentiles shall see your just one,
and all kings your glorious one:
and you shall be called by a new name,
which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be called Desolate:
but you shall be called My pleasure in her,
and your land inhabited.
Because the Lord has been well pleased with you:
and your land shall be inhabited.
For the young man shall dwell with the virgin,
and your children shall dwell in you.
And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride,
and your God shall rejoice over you.

Psalm 144

Antiphon: Blessed are you, Mary, because you believed that the Lord's words to you would be
fulfilled.

Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands to fight, and my fingers to war.

My mercy, and my refuge: my support, and my deliverer:
My protector, and I have hoped in him:
who subdues my people under me.

Lord, what is man, that you are made known to him?
or the son of man, that you make account of him?
Man is like to vanity:
his days pass away like a shadow.
Lord, bow down your heavens and descend:

touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
Send forth lightning, and you shall scatter them:
shoot out your arrows, and you shall trouble them.
Put forth your hand from on high,
take me out, and deliver me from many waters:
from the hand of strange children:
Whose mouth has spoken vanity:
and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity.

To you, O God, I will sing a new canticle:
on the psaltery and an instrument
of ten strings I will sing praises to you.
Who gives salvation to kings:
who has redeemed your servant David from the malicious sword:
Deliver me, And rescue me out of the hand of strange children;
whose mouth has spoken vanity:
and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity:
Whose sons are as new plants in their youth:
Their daughters decked out,
adorned round about after the similitude of a temple:
Their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that.
Their sheep fruitful in young, abounding
in their goings forth: their oxen fat.
There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor crying out in their streets.
They have called the people happy, that have these things:
but happy is that people whose God is the Lord.

Joel 2: 3
And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:
and I am the Lord your God, and there is none besides:
and my people shall not be confounded for ever.

And it shall come to pass after this,
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh:
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy:
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Moreover upon my servants and handmaids in those days
I will pour forth my spirit.
And I will show wonders in heaven;
and in earth, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood:
before the great and dreadful day of the Lord does come.

Song of Songs, 2

Arise, make haste, my love, my dove,
my beautiful one, and come.
For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone.

The flowers have appeared in our land,
the time of pruning is come:
the voice of the turtle is heard in our land:
The fig tree has put forth her green figs:
the vines in flower yield their sweet smell.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one and come:

my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the hollow places of the wall,
show me your face,
let your voice sound in my ears:
for your voice is sweet,
and your face comely.
Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines:
for our vineyard has flourished.

My beloved to me, and I to him
who feeds among the lilies,

Till the day break,
and the shadows retire.
Return: be like, my beloved,
to a roe, or to a young hart
upon the mountains of Bether.

The Lord has chosen her, his loved one from the beginning
He has taken her to live with him, his loved one from the beginning.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever.

The Lord has chosen her, his loved one from the beginning.

Tridentine Introit
Your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable; their power is become very
great. Lord, You have proved me and known me: You have known my sitting down
and my rising up.

The Song of Zechariah
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;
because he has visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And has raised up an horn of salvation to us,
in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers,
and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him, all our days.
And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest:
for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people,
unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God,
in which the Orient from on high has visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death:
to direct our feet into the way of peace.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, she cried out and said: Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever. Amen.

Sun of Justice, the immaculate Virgin was the white dawn announcing your rising, grant that we may always live in the light of your coming. Lord, help us imitate Mary, your mother, who chose the best part, may we seek the food that will sustain us for ever. Savior of the world, by your redeeming might you preserved your mother before-hand from all stain of sin, keep watch over us, lest we sin. You are our redeemer, who made the immaculate Virgin Mary your purest home and the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, make us temples of your Spirit for ever. Eternal Father, you inspired the Virgin Mary, mother of your Son, to visit Elizabeth and assist her in her need. Keep us open to the working of your Spirit, and with Mary may we praise you for ever. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.