Hymn for the Holy Innocents

This ancient hymn, with lyrics that date from the year 383, commemorates the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, babies under the age of two, who, at the order of King Herod, were ruthlessly murdered in an attempt to slay the infant Jesus.

The innocents are still being slaughtered. There is infanticide in America. From Jill at Potluck:

Pass it on. The major news outlets are ignoring this.

Michelle Malkin reports on mass-murderer Kermit Gosnell and the mass cover-up that allowed it to continue for decades:

In the City of Brotherly Love, hundreds of babies were murdered by a scissors-wielding monster over four decades. Whistleblowers informed public officials at all levels of the wanton killings of innocent life. But a parade of government health bureaucrats and advocates protecting the abortion racket looked the other way – until, that is, a Philadelphia grand jury finally exposed the infanticide factory run by abortionist Kermit B. Gosnell, M.D., and a crew of unlicensed, untrained butchers masquerading as noble providers of women’s “choice.”

More than you ever wanted to know here. This story is horrific, but it must be told. God help us.

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Latin

Salvete flores martyrum

quos lucis ipso in limine
Christi insecutor sustulit

ceu turbo nascentes rosas. 

Vos prima Christi victima
grex immolatorum tener

aram sub ipsam simplices
palma et coronis luditis.

Iesu, tibi sit gloria
qui natus es de Virgine

cum Patre et almo Spiritu
in sempiterna saecula. 

Amen

English

Hail, martyred flowers!
On the threshold of the dawn of life,
Christ's persecutor destroyed you
like the whirlwind does the budding roses.

You, Christ's first martyrs,
a flock of tender lambs,
now play with your palms and crowns 
right up at God's altar.

Jesus, born of the Virgin, 
to You be the glory,
with the Father and the Loving Spirit,
unto eternity.
Amen

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