Immaculate Conception

Alone, of all the Children of Adam,
 Mary was conceived Immaculate

 "As the lily among thorns, so is My Love among the daughters."--Cant. ii. 2
 "My perfect one is but one. . . . The daughters saw her, and declared her most blessed."--Cant. vi. 8



Hail! Mary, only sinless child
 Of guilty Adam's fallen race,
 Conceived all pure and undefiled,
 Through thy dear Lord's preventing grace.
 Thus thou wert sinless in thy birth,
 And sinless after as before,--
 The only creature of this earth
 Whom sin ne'er cast its shadow o'er
 
He would not have the blight of sin
 A moment rest thy soul upon,
 For pure without and pure within
 Must be the Mother of His Son.
 O sweetest lily! all untorn,
 Though nursed the thorns of earth among,
 To thee we sigh, to the we mourn
 To thee we lift our suppliant song.
 
No haughty fiend might boast that he
 One moment held thee in his snare,
 Who of the dread Divinity
 Wert destined for the Temple fair.
 From Satan's snare preserve us free,
 And keep us safe from earthly stain,
 That in this world we pure may be,
 And in the next may see thee reign.