MATER MISERICORDIAE
(St Herman the Cripple wrote the Salve Regina)*
Our Lady walks the desolated lands
to save them from the conquest of despair,
her eyes are deep and her hands
are eloquent of prayer.
With sacramental touch and healing lips
she bends above each charred and lonely door
to lift the silence of the sad eclipse
where first-born sons have passed, to come no more.
She only brings to fruitfulness the need
that war has sown in tears and blasphemy
and startles to reality the deed
unborn in helplessness and agony.
Our Lady walks the sterile, darkened days,
and mercy in her steps undesecrate,
floods the long shadow and the pathless ways
of unregenerate hate.
To acres bare of hope or of surprise,
deprived alike of vision and release,
she brings compassion and the glad surmise
of loveliness returning and of peace.
Spring is forever; roses still may bloom;
where she has passed no alien stars may glow
deceptive, nor the cross distorted loom
a clutching shadow where the fires burn low.
Our Lady walks the roads of hate and strife
her veil upon a cleansing wind unfurled,
Herman the Cripple's dream of Hope and Life
and Sweetness folding in a stricken world.
Sister St Miriam of the Temple CND
America. May 12, 1945
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Mater Misericordiae - Mother of Mercy
* Some believe Hermann of Reichenau - also known as St Herman the Cripple - wrote the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen). Others ascribe the authorship of this prayer to St Bernard of Clairvaux.
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