According to the rubrics of the Bridgettine Breviary, at the Hours, the following beautiful Collect is said, which I cannot find elsewhere:

O Almighty God, especially amidst these Paschal solemnities of Thy Son may the commemoration of Mary the Virgin Mother of God be ever healthful unto us, who did stand wounded by charity [as He was] hanging upon the Cross, and who now doth stand as Queen reigning in heaven at the right hand of the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who together with Thee doth live and reign in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God. Throughout all ages of ages. R. Amen.

This Collect hearkens to the special place that Our Blessed Lady has in the Paschal mysteries that we are celebrating. As Idelfonso Cardinal Schuster observes in his commentary upon yesterday's Mass (The Sacramentary [Liber Sacramentorum]: Historical and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal, Vol. 2 , p. 313; trans. Arthur Levelis-Marke and W. Fairfax-Cholmeley; New York: Benziger Brothers, 1930):

After the paschal vigil at the Lateran the first basilica to be visited is that of the Mother of God on the Esquiline [Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore], for it is fitting that to her, before any other, the joys of the resurrection should be announced, to her who more intimately than any other shared in the passion of Jesus.

One may see how decorously and worthily associated is Our Lady with the Sacrament of Baptism, a mystery that is a secondary central theme throughout the Paschaltide Office and Mass, in light of the teachings of St. Louis Marie regarding the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin as indispensably entailing a more perfect and selfless renovation of the Baptismal vows, and in light of the teachings of the Church regarding Our Lady as Co-Redemptress and Mediatress of all graces merited by the Passion of her Divine Son.

Therefore, the whole of Christendom in these sacred days cries forth unto the Mother of God: "Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja!"

The Antiphon Media vita has a sort of relevance to Paschaltide in that at the Hymns throughout the Paschal season (in the Dominican, Calced Carmelite, Premonstratensian and Benedictine Breviaries) at Matins, Lauds and Vespers the following stanza occurs:

Quæsumus, Auctor omnium,
In hoc Paschali gaudio,
Ab omni mortis impetu
Tuum defende populum.

This Rev. Fr. Aquinas Byrnes (Hymns of the Dominican Missal and Breviary, pp. 106-107n; St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1943) translates and explains:

"Author of all things, we pray, that in this Paschal joy: defend Thy people from every assault of death." This and the following stanza make up the double doxology in Paschaltide. Gaudio. The joy of Easter is the Resurrection and all it implies. "If Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins" (I Cor. 15:17). Impetu, every attack of "the world, the flesh and the devil" which might bring spiritual death (mortis) to the soul. "With His holy arm He will defend them" (Wisd. 5:17).

Note: In the Roman Breviary, the text of this stanza was change during the reforms of Pope Urban VIII. It presently reads:

Ut sis perenne mentibus
Paschale Jesu gaudium;
A morte dira criminum
Vitæ renatos libera.

Loose translation: "That thou, O Jesus, mayest ever be unto souls Eastertide joy, do Thou liberate from the dire death of crimes those reborn unto life."

It is to be noted in the midst of these Paschal joys that St. Mary Magdalene was the first recorded witness of the Resurrection of the Savior. She attained to this great grace by persevering in prayerful and selfless penance and charity at the foot of the Cross, under the tutelage and mediation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with whom she valiantly stood on that first Good Friday together with the beloved Apostle and Evangelist St. John and the other holy women.

The faithful of times past did not overlook the admirable design of Providence that decreed that the great Immaculate Virgin, Mother of the Word Incarnate, and the great Penitent of the Gospels should share the same name. Hence, in the Dominican Breviary we find the following Responsory:

R. Let us praise the work of God in Mary, Mother and Virgin, but also in Mary, sinner but penitent: * This Mary is given as a mirror of innocency, whilst this Mary is given as an example of penitence. V. That we may confess to Thy holy Name, and may glory in Thy praise, * That Mary is given as a mirror of innocency, whilst this Mary is given as an example of penitence. (v. Responsory, Brev. O. Præd.)

The conversion of the holy Magdalene is depicted in a curious and dramatic manner in the Premonstratensian Breviary (22 July):

R. The Leviathan’s jaw hath been pierced through as a ring, through whose aperture thou hast been drawn away, O Mary: do thou therefore help us, that, having fallen therein in sinning, we may merit to be drawn away from thence in imitating thee * Repenting. V. May the Divine Mercy, with thee interceding for us, may not only forbid us to go into the Leviathan’s mouth, but also may grant us to return from its mouth * Repenting. (ix. Responsory, Brev. O. Præm.)

The holy Magdalene's conversion is here vividly depicted as a rescue from the belly of the monstrous Leviathan, an allusion to the following passage of Holy Writ: "Canst thou draw out the Leviathan with a hook, and with a rope shalt thou tie his tongue? Shalt thou put a ring in his nostrils, or bore through his jaw with a buckle?" (Job ch. xl. 20, 21). Rev. Father Gregory Martin, in a marginal note to this passage in the Douay Old Testament, explains that the Leviathan is a “huge great fish, perhaps the whale, exceeding man’s power to be managed, yet it is subject, as also the devil signified thereby, to God’s power and providence.” In the Prophecy of Isaias, the Incarnate Word is foreshown as a mighty Conqueror who shall slay the monster: "In that day our Lord will visit with His sore, and great, and strong sword upon Leviathan and the serpent, the bar, and upon Leviathan the crooked serpent, and shall kill the whale that is in the sea" (ch. xxvii. 1).

Thus, in the Premonstratensian Responsory cited above, St. Mary Magdalene is represented as having been rescued from the wounded Leviathan, that is to say, from the devil overcome by Christ, the Divine Victor risen gloriously from the dead. The Responsory also reminds us that we are ever in danger of being devoured by the monster on account of fallen nature, but if we imitate the holy Magdalene's penitence and charity, we too may be freed from the Leviathan, "who as a roaring lion goeth about, seeking whom he may devour" (I S. Peter ch. v. 8). But this is a gratuitous gift of God's infinite clemency, and it behooves us to seek such a grace by prayer, particularly in imploring the holy Penitent's intercession.

The infernal Leviathan can only swallow us up if we surrender ourselves to it, in the horrible magnitude of our malice and turpitude. Yet we too, if we should ever have the misfortune to lose Our Lord by our unhappy fault, can find Him yet again by penance and charity in this life, and by final perseverance we can find Him once more in that perpetual and unspeakable vision that constitutes the eternal bliss of the Angels and the elect. Hence the beautiful collect to be found in the Dominican and Norbertine Breviaries for St. Mary Magdalene's Office:

Grant unto us, O most clement Father, that as blessed Mary Magdalene in loving our Lord Jesus Christ above all things hath obtained the forgiveness of all her sins, so also before Thy mercy may she beseech for us everlasting beatitude. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

As Paschaltide continues its course, let us not forget to utter a prayer to the great Penitent who merited the grace of beholding the Risen Lord before the other disciples and before the Apostles themselves. Whilst they doubted and fled in the Garden, and all but one stood by the Cross, never did she abandon her beloved Jesus. Like the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph seeking anxiously and joyously finding the lost Infant at Jerusalem, she too sought Our Lord on that sacred Easter morning and found Him to her great joy.

Good work and thanks, sir. Good work and thanks.

intersting posts hobbledehoy!

Thank you very much, one is more beautiful than the other. Always looking for more liturgical treasures.

I almost forgot the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, whom the Carmelites commemorated on 25 May and the Roman Rite on 29 May.

She is one of the most beautiful of the Carmelite mystics, whose love and zeal for God astound me with a wonder that well nigh approaches a sacred dread.

Here are the Responsories that occur in her Proper Office found in the Carmelite Breviary, which incorporate the texts of the sacred Canticles in order to depict the sublime mystical union whereby Our Lord espoused her unto Himself:

My beloved Jesus is the Flower of the field, at Whose sight the Angels rejoice, * Upon Whose beauty the blessed are fed, and by Whose sweet perfume the dead are brought back to life, alleluia. V. As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is My beloved among the daughters. * Upon Whose beauty the blessed are fed, and by Whose sweet perfume the dead are brought back to life, alleluia. (i. Responsory at Matins)

The Spouse of Jesus glows with charity, burns with desire: * Beside herself with the fire of love, she knoweth not whither to turn, alleluia. V. Stay up with me flowers, compass me about with apples, because I languish with love. * Beside herself in the fire of love, she knoweth not whither to turn, alleluia. (ii. Responsory at Matins)

O happy soul of Magdalene, so aflame with the ardours of charity, * That it languished and fainted away with love, alleluia. V. My heart and my flesh have fainted away, O God of my heart, and Thou, O God, art my portion forever. * That it languished and fainted away with love, alleluia. (iii. Responsory at Matins)

When I was yet young, I sought wisdom in my prayer: * I directed my soul unto her, and found her, alleluia. V. Thy good Spirit hath led me into the right land, and taught me to do Thy will. * I directed my soul unto her, and found her, alleluia. (iv. Responsory at Matins)

A strong conflict did He give her, that she might overcome, and know that wisdom is mightier than all, and He descended with her into the pit, * And He forsook her not, alleluia. V. According to the multitude of my sorrows, Thy consolations have given joy to my soul. * And He forsook her not, alleluia. (v. Responsory at Matins)

God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, * By Whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world, alleluia. V. I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me. * By Whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world, alleluia. (vi. Responsory at Matins)

I have loved the beauty of Thy House, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth: * I have chosen to be an abject in Thy House rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners, alleluia. V. How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts: my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of holy Religion. * I have chosen to be an abject in Thy House rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners, alleluia. (vii. Responsory at Matins)

A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved to me, amidst my breast shall He abide: * I have put Him as a seal upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm, alleluia. V. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, that you tell Him that I languish with love. * I have put Him as a seal upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm, alleluia. (vii. Responsory at Matins, Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, Virgin, Carmelite Breviary)