Alma Redemptoris Mater

Alma Redemptoris Mater,
quae pervia caeli porta manes,
Et stella maris,
succurre cadenti
surgere qui curat populo:
Tu quae genuisti,
natura mirante,
tuum sanctum Genitorem:
Virgo prius ac posterius,
Gabrielis ab ore
sumens illud Ave,
peccatorum miserere.

Sweet Mother of the Redeemer,
that passage to heaven,
gate of the morning,
and star of the sea:
Assist the fallen,
lift up, you who cure, the people:
you who bore to the wonderment of nature,
your holy Creator.
Virgin before and after,
who received from Gabriel
that joyful greeting,
have mercy on us sinners.

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This Marian hymn is sung after Compline during the Liturgical seasons of Advent and Epiphany, when it replaces the Salve Regina. The Church prizes devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary so highly, and deems it so necessary, that she requires all her priests and religious to sing a hymn to her as the last thing they do every single day.

This hymn focuses on the happy privilege of Mary being chosen to be the mother of God ("who received from Gabriel"), and how she gave birth to the Redeemer. Because of this privilege, she has become our hope ("star of the sea"). So it is most fitting to hear this hymn during Advent and Epiphany, when the Church wants us to meditate on those very mysteries.

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