Pemathi Hadin Lyrics by Unknown Artist

With a loving heart, show me your love,
show to me your tender affection,
O mother who leads me to your Son,
homage, homage to you, mother

To stand and defeat the demons of hell,
to seek God’s refuge with a pleading heart,
my weak strength is you, O mother,
come into the home of my heart, divine mother

Whatever your Son may say to do,
to fulfil it with an obedient heart,
my weak strength is you, O mother,
come into the home of my heart, divine mother

That I may not be dragged into the darkness of sin,
that I may awaken through the teaching and be made pure,
my weak strength is you, O mother,
come into the home of my heart, divine mother

This is a Marian hymn, a prayer to Mary, the mother of Jesus, honoured in Catholic devotion as a loving mother and a guide to her Son. It opens by asking for her tender care, “with a loving heart, show me your love,” and names her central role in one beautiful phrase, “O mother who leads me to your Son.” Mary is never sought for her own sake here but as the one who brings the believer closer to Jesus, and the refrain of praise, “homage, homage to you, mother,” runs through the song.

Each verse asks Mary for help with a real spiritual struggle, and each ends the same way, confessing dependence: “my weak strength is you, O mother, come into the home of my heart.” The believer knows he is weak and invites her in. The struggles are concrete: “to stand and defeat the demons of hell,” to seek God with “a pleading heart,” and, movingly, “whatever your Son may say to do, to fulfil it with an obedient heart”, echoing Mary’s own words at the wedding of Cana, “do whatever he tells you.”

The final verse asks for protection and growth, “that I may not be dragged into the darkness of sin,” and “that I may awaken through the teaching and be made pure.” What the listener is left with is the warm, filial spirit of Marian devotion, a child turning to a spiritual mother for strength against evil, for obedience to Christ, and for purity, trusting her to take his weak hand and lead him, always, to her Son.