VESPERS - 6 P.M.

V. O Lady, make speed to befriend me. 

R. From the hands of the enemy powerfully defend me. 

V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. 

R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

Alleluia. 

Hymn  

Hail, Dial of Achaz,

     On thee the true Sun

Told backward the course
     Which from old he had run.

And that man might be rais'd
     Submitting to shame,
A little more low
     Than the angels became.

Thou, wrapt in the blaze
     Of His infinite light
Dost shine as the morn
     On the confines of night.

As the moon on the lost
     Through obscurity dawns;
The serpent's destroyer;
     A lily mid thorns.

V. I made an unfailing light to arise in heaven.

R. And as a mist, I overspread the whole earth.

V. O Lady recommend my prayer,

R. And let my cry come unto thee. 

Let Us Pray.

O Holy Mary, Queen of heaven, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Mistress of the world, who forsakest no one, and despises no one; look upon me, O Lady, with an eye of pity, and entreat for me, of thy beloved Son, the forgiveness of all my sins; that, as I now celebrate with devout affection Thy Holy and Immaculate Conception, so hereafter, I may receive the prize of eternal blessedness, by the grace of Him whom thou, in virginity, didst bring forth, Jesus Christ our Lord; who, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, in perfect unity, God, world without end.  Amen.  

Vespers Explained