Mary's prayer from a Christmas hymn by Saint Romanos the Melodist (+ ca. 560 A.D., celebrated in the East on 1 October):
Tell me, my Child, how were you planted in me, and how were you formed in me? I see you, O my womb, and I am stunned. My bosom is full of milk, and I am not married. I see you wound about with swaddling clothes and perceive that the seal of my virginity is still intact, for it was you that kept it intact, when you deigned to be born, my little Child, God before all ages! High King, what do you have in common with our sorrows? Creator of heaven, why do you come among the inhabitants of earth? Were you taken with desire for a cave? Are you in love with a manger?
--On Christmas 1, 2-3: P. Maas and C. A. Trypanis, Sancti Romani Melodi Cantica Geniuna (Oxford, 1963); Cantica Dubia (Berlin, 1970)
Here is John Mason Neale's translation of Veni sancte spiritus, also known as the "Golden Sequence"; we sing it on the feast of Pentecost. As far as I can tell, the original is usually attributed to Stephen Langton (+ 1228 A.D.).
Father Neale was kind enough to preserve the meter of the original, so it fits perfectly with the ancient chant melody.
Come, Thou holy Paraclete, And from Thy celestial seat Send Thy light and brilliancy: Father of the poor, draw near; Giver of all gifts, be here; Come, the soul's true radiancy.
Come, of comforters the best, Of the soul the sweetest guest, Come in toil refreshingly: Thou in labor rest most sweet, Thou art shadow from the heat, Comfort in adversity.
O Thou Light, most pure and blest, Shine within the inmost breast Of Thy faithful company. Where Thou art not, man hath naught; Every holy deed and thought Comes from Thy divinity.
What is soilèd, make Thou pure; What is wounded, work its cure; What is parchèd, fructify; What is rigid, gently bend; What is frozen, warmly tend; Strengthen what goes erringly.
Fill Thy faithful, who confide In Thy power to guard and guide, With Thy sevenfold mystery. Here Thy grace and virtue send: Grant salvation to the end, And in Heav'n felicity.
Saint Hilary of Poiters, Hymn on Christ 11-13, CSEL 65, 218:
Gabriel pronounces; Christ is received into the Virgin's body. The womb swells because of the holy Offspring. We are exhorted to believe in something new, and never seen before: A childbearing Virgin.
From Saint Hilary of Poiters (+ 367 A.D.), the "Athanasius of the West." Saint Hilary was the most tenacious and formidable Western adversary of Arianism.
O Christ, for us the twice-born God! Born once, from God unborn; Born twice, when the childbearing Virgin Brought you into the world, Embodied and still God!Hymns 1, 5-8; Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum (CSEL) 65, 209
From Saint Ephrem the Syrian (+ 373 A.D.), doctor of the Church and the greatest poet of the patristic age. His feast day is 9 June.
The womb and Sheol shouted with joy and cried out about Your resurrection. The womb that was sealed, conceived You; Sheol that was secured, brought you forth. Against nature the womb conceived and Sheol yielded. Sealed was the grave which they entrusted with keeping the dead man. Virginal was the womb that no man knew. The virginal womb and the sealed grave like trumpets for a deaf people, shouted in its ear.
Hymns on the Nativity 10, 7-8; Corpus scriptorum Christianorum orientalium v. 187, 59.
