On the Eighth Day of Christmas…

…We celebrate the feast of Mary, Mother of God.

Prayer of Entrusting the Church to Mary, Mother of God by Pope John Paul II

O Mother of all peoples; you know all their sufferings and their hopes.  You maternally feel all their struggles between good and evil, between the light and the darkness which shake the world.  Receive our cry, directed in the Holy spirit straight to your Heart and, with the love of the Mother and Handmaid of the Lord, embrace the individuals and the peoples which most look for this embrace, together with the individuals and peoples to whose trust you attend in a particular way.  Take the entire human family under your maternal protection. With outflows of affection, O Mother, we entrust it to you.  May the time of peace and liberty approach for all, the time of truth and justice, and hope.  Amen.