O Mary of Graces and Mother of God CWB I 769

While a lot of the songs I am finding in Australia’s Catholic Worship Book are not Australian, just what was suggested for Australian Catholic Churches largely from England, Europe and the United States, this one has a very Australian pedigree.

It is from the Hymnal of St Pius X from 1952, which can be downloaded as a pdf here. Dr Percy Jones, who assembled the hymn book, wrote the setting called O MARY OF GRACES for this Irish poem translated from the Gaelic (A Mhuire na nGras) by Douglas Hyde. For a Marian hymn of that vintage and with Irish descent, it is laudably free of sentiment.

I derived the chords from the organ music in the St Pius X Hymnal for this backing.

1 O Mary of Graces and Mother of God,

May I tread the paths that the righteous have trod.

And mayest thou save me from evil’s control,

And mayest thou save me in body and soul.

2 And mayest thou save me by land and by sea,

And mayest thou save me from tortures to be.

May the guard of the angels above me abide,

May God be before me and God at my side.

There are more verses here, but CWB has only two.

This tune appears unique to Australia, and Godsongs notes the more usual setting, which is Irish traditional.

This is to the Irish tune.