52 PROPER OF SAINTS PREFACE OF MARY, IMAGE AND MOTHER OF THE CHURCH II Our Lady as an example of true worship t is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord. For in your infinite goodness you have given to the virgin Church the model of true worship in the Virgin Mary. She is the Virgin who listens, who embraces your words with joy, treasuring them in the silence of her heart. She is the Virgin of prayer, who sings of your mercy in her canticle of praise, who shows concern for the bridegroom and bride of Cana and intercedes for them with her Son, who prays with the Apostles in oneness of mind and heart. She is the Virgin Mother, who gives birth to your Son by the power of the Holy Spirit and at the foot of the Cross is proclaimed as mother of the people of the New Covenant. She is the Virgin who offers, presenting the Firstborn in your temple and sharing in his self-offering beside the tree of everlasting life. I
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