MAGNIFICAT

MAGNIFICAT  1

(Behold, all generations shall call me blessed.) 

All generations come to her calling,

hail Mary, Holy Mary!

In the cool of the quiet morning children sing

bringing lily and lilac to her shrine on the green hill,

(their will is joyous and still under their mother's eyes

and their praise is a bird in the skies with a shrill song.)

Now in the terrible noon of insistent life

we who no longer shine with innocence

cut with a knife the tough blooms of our wayward summer

to lay before her shrine in the grey grottoes,

calling her name under the stress of sin,

hail Mary, Holy Mary, pray for us in the rough sea of our shame.

Our cries are borne to her in the storm of the elements

and in the heart's storm.

(twisted and torn in the stern tempest of love

we turn and cry to her, Hail Mary, Holy Mary!)

and the moon rises serenely above the deep wood

where we stood frightened.

She is light in the dark night, blessed among women,

fair as the moon, bright as the sun.

We have wrought her image in silver and gold,

in stone and clay, as she told Elizabeth we would,

calling her blessed through the generations.

Nations have carved her image in wood and marble

according to their vision. There is no place

where her face has not been moulded in clay or gold;

there is no day passes but thousands pray

hail Mary, Holy Mary, blessed art thou!

It is just as she said

the day she bowed her head in Elizabeth's room

when her womb rang out with the Word

bounding against the pure curve of her emptiness like a bell

giving tongue to her young blessedness.

Now we tell in our generation

what the old have told

what they will tell who come after ...

hail Mary, Holy Mary, blessed art thou!

Sister Agnes

Sign. 23 November 1948

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1 (My soul) gives praise (to the Lord)

From 'A Silence full of bells'
With thanks to Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6em4VuYwAVs