Mary, Fountain of Light and Life

Brentwood Diocese celebrates St Mellitus as a Diocesan Memorial today, but elsewhere I think it might be legitimate to celebrate one the Easter Masses from the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This week's featured Mass is one entitled "Mary, Fountain of Light and Life", which celebrates the Virgin Mary in relation to the sacraments of initiation that are characteristic of the Easter season.

The Preface for this Mass is as follows:

By the marvelous gift of your loving kindness
you decreed that the mysteries
accomplished already in the Blessed Virgin
should be accomplished in sign
through the sacraments of the Church:
for from the baptismal font the Church brings to birth
new sons and daughters conceived in fruitful virginity
through faith and the Holy Spirit.

These newborn children the Church anoints
with the precious oil of sacred chrism,
so that the Spirit,
who filled the Blessed Virgin
with an abundance of gifts,
may come down to bless them
with an outpouring of grace.

Each day the Church also prepares for its children
the table where it nourishes them with the bread of heaven,
born of the Virgin Mary for the life of the world:
Jesus Christ our Lord.

And the Opening Prayer:

Grant that through the life-giving Gospel
and your grace-filled sacraments
the Church may form its daughters and sons
in the likeness of Christ, its founder,
who was born of a Virgin Mother
as the firstborn of many brothers and sisters
and the Saviour of the whole human race.