LADY OF SPACE

LADY OF SPACE

Lady of space,

clothed with the sun,

born in God's mind

Immaculate one!

Crowned with the stars,

the moon at your feet,

Mother and Mistress,

your praise we repeat!

Lady of sky-ways,

Queen of our race,

flower of earthlings,

hail, full of grace!

Sister M Josephine OSF

Cord. September 1961

From 'A Silence full of bells'

MAGNIFICAT

MAGNIFICAT

"And there was given to the Woman, two wings of a great eagle" (Apoc.14)

O let us put away

the little hammers of our thoughts,

and bend our dreams and prayers

like bowing fields of wheat

before the Lady, garmented in sun,

bright-winged with wisdom and humility,

invulnerable against the beast.

Tender is her mother-love, but strong

brooding over our destinies,

folding her mighty pinions

about our frailty and tears,

seeing her Son's redemptive blood

pulsing through our veins,

His image on our brows.

Her name is like a clarion upon our lips,

but in our hearts

it is a waterfall of fragrance, crystal, cool.

City of God, she locks us safe

beneath the healing triumph of her wings.

Sister M Josephine F SS S

St. Anthony's Messenger. May 1961

From 'A Silence full of bells'

AT NAZARETH

AT NAZARETH

Those were simple, sunlit days at Nazareth

when happy voices floated on the air,

when in and out the cottage and the workshop

children followed Jesus everywhere.

His mother, Mary, watched them all benignly,

noting with tender eyes each childish need.

On one she smiled; to one she whispered softly;

to this one's bruise, to that one's tears, gave heed.

And then an avalanche of doughty warriors:

they stormed the carpenter with mock alarms,

and seized their prey, his curly wooden shavings,

and forced his willing hands to mend their arms.

O Jesus, lead us too. Your other children,

to Mary's loving care and Joseph's skill.

They'll bind our wounds and mend our broken weapons

so we can battle on, brave-hearted still.

Sister M Josephine OSU

Life of Mary - Poetry. Marian Library Collection

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'Broken weapons' and 'battle on' refer to spiritual warfare

'For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places'. Ephesians 6:12

From 'A Silence full of bells'

OUR LADY AT LENT

The Crucifixion of Jesus

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).18 There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”

22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

“They divided my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.”

So this is what the soldiers did.

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

HAIL, FULL OF GRACE (being a short theological dissertation on the fullness of grace)

HAIL, FULL OF GRACE

(being a short theological dissertation on the fullness of grace)

In fullness is no static state of being

nor yet suffices that container be

enlarged for more grace by each grace's giving

its whole return in love to graced design.

By more expansion of you, Mary, danger

of overspill grows greater with each pouring

from zest of God's exuberant donation

of grace where grace is fast absorbed and spent.

We come to save you, inundated Mother,

from floods of grace high rising in your soul.

Here with cupped hearts we kneel to beg a drenching.

Hail, Mary, full of grace, spill grace on us. Amen.

Mother M Francis PCC

Summon Spirit's Cry. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

(c) 1996. Mother M Francis PCC. All rights reserved.

Used with permission

From 'A Silence full of bells'

FESTIVALE, TWO MOVEMENTS (For Our Lady's Assumption)

FESTIVALE, TWO MOVEMENTS

(For Our Lady's Assumption)

I

When stars fall back in wonder, and the sun

shields his golden eye against such fire

as Mary is, returning to her Son.

What bourdon* stops of sea-roar underscore

the lightning's corno*, while the morning's chime

against the noon, the night, the evermore!

II

But there is pianissimo for heart,

and love is dulcet where the flowers stand

in open-petalled wonder at her tomb.

Call back the flutes and violins of spring!

and find them still too clangorous for love

singing its silence at her empty grave.

Mother M Francis PCC

Summon Spirit's Cry. San Francisao: Ignatius Press

(c) 1996. Mother M Francis PCC. All rights reserved.

Used with permission

From 'A Silence full of bells'

_______________________________

* Bourdon: low accompaniment to a song

* Corno: an organ stop

DETAILS FOR THE DEATH OF OUR LADY

DETAILS FOR THE DEATH OF OUR LADY *

Give her now for this brief hour

into the chivalrous arms of darkness,

lay her upon the bosom of the earth,

gently, a grain of wheat again

that gave us Bread before.

Snuff for a tender moment the flame,

the dull earth's single splendour, Heaven, bend

a hushed, expectant arc across her grave.

patrol on wings of flame, you Seraphim,

this place of buried wheat!

Let the trees kneel, apostles at her grave;

apostles stand like trees and wait the sign

for springing, sprouting, blossoming. Now, world,

be mausoleum for one tender sheaf *

this hour of your best glory!

Planted by us, watered with God's desire,

sleep in our earthy hostel, Mary. Swiftly

comes His increase for you, His briefest dead.

Back, stand back, you Seraphim!

The gallant earth is heaving

a glorious reluctance for her sprouting!

Down to the southland of her grave

on bright propellers, spread your brave formation,

birds of the earth she loved, and strike the moment

of rising with your thousand throaty chimes,

never again alone, small grain of wheat,

Spring, sprout, and blossom, spread your fruits across

the floors of Heaven. Be a Queen forever.

Only remember you are ours and walked

under our trees and slept, once, in our earth.

Mother M Francis PCC

Summon Spirit's Cry. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

(c) 1996. Mother M Francis PCC. All rights reserved.

Used with permission

From 'A Silence full of bells'

____________________________________________

*The Immaculate Mother of God was taken up body and soul into heaven after her earthly sojourn had been completed

*  "Sheaf" refers to the tradition that only a sheaf of lilies was found in the place where Mary's body had been laid to rest.

NEW BETHLEHEM

NEW BETHLEHEM

Again the bright entreating star rebukes

the barren welcome that He came to find;

for crowded inn, the heart obsessed by pain,

for stable now, the dark and arrogant mind.

And yet with steadfast joy, foreknowing all

our long despairs made golden in her Son,

into this mourning city of the soul

Mary expectant brings its Promised One.

God speed your hour, Mother of our Hope!

And even in this citadel of pain

let us behold Him - so our doom shall lift

and the great star shall tell of peace again.

Sister M Jeremy OP

Sign. December 1936

From 'A Silence full of bells'

MOTHER OF FAIR LOVE

MOTHER OF FAIR LOVE

Close as the dove's wing to her breast of peace

she folds her Child - and every other child at last

safe in the kind blue shadow of her veil

will lie content, all fright and anguish past.

And wise old men shall turn their eyes in awe

to that pure brown and almond-curve of cheek

bent motherly to teach them all the lore

of patient love they had not wit to seek.

Sister M Jeremy

Sign. 1940

From 'A Silence full of bells'