1. We greet you, Daughter of God the Father!

We greet you, Mother of the Son of God! We greet you, Spouse of the Holy Spirit! We greet you, dwelling-place of the Most Holy Trinity!

With this greeting we come before you on your feast day with the trust of children, and we pause, according to tradition, at the foot of this historic column for our yearly gathering in Piazza di Spagna. From here, beloved and venerated Mother of all, you watch over the city of Rome.

2. Abide with us, Immaculate Mother, in the heart of our preparation for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.

We beseech you, watch especially over the triduum, formed of the last three years of the second millennium, 1997, 1998 and 1999, years dedicated to contemplation of the Trinitarian mystery of God.

We would like this eventful century of ours and the second Christian millennium to close with the seal of the Trinity. It is in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit that we begin our daily work and prayer.

It is in turning again to the heavenly Father that we end our activities by praying: "Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit".

Thus, in the sign of the Trinitarian mystery, the Church in Rome, united with believers throughout the world, approaches in prayer the end of the 20th century, to enter the third millennium with a renewed heart.

3. We greet you, Daughter of God the Father!

We greet you, Mother of the Son of God! We greet you, Spouse of the Holy Spirit! We greet you, dwelling-place of the Most Holy Trinity!

This greeting highlights how deeply you are imbued with God’s own life, with his profound and ineffable mystery. You have been totally imbued with this mystery from the first moment of your conception. You are full of grace; you are immaculate!

4. We greet you, Immaculate Mother of God!

Accept our prayer and, as Mother, deign to bring the Church in Rome and throughout the world into that fullness of time towards which the universe has been advancing since the day your divine Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world.

He is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, the King of the ages, the First-born of all creation, the First and the Last.

In him all is definitively fulfilled;
in him, every reality grows to the full stature desired by God in his mysterious plan of love.

5. We greet you, Virgin most prudent!

We greet you, Mother most clement! Pray for us, intercede for us, Immaculate Virgin, our merciful and powerful Mother, Mary!

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