SIMEON
SPEAKS TO ANNA
Yes, there were
other things that I foreknew
but could not bear
to tell, seeing her eyes, -
knowing what
two-edged anguish Joseph’s heart
was aching
from. For when I prophesied[1]
the sword of
sorrow piercing Mary’s soul,
His arms yearned
toward her, just as though he said,
“Not while I live
to shield!” But yet he spoke
no word, for
Joseph is a silent man.
Such suffer most;
I could not bear to say
the half of all I
might have prophesied.
I told her of her
own sharp sword of woe:
she only looked
down at the Babe and smiled;
she scarcely
seemed to heed; but had I told
what sword will
pierce His Heart one bitter day,
she would have
fallen there in the temple court
death-smitten with
grief – and so I could not bear
to tell the half
of all that I foreknew.
Just as she
offered me her turtle doves,
(the price of Him
they prized), and reached to take
back to her
tender, mothering arms again
her Treasure - and
the world’s – my mind’s eye saw
a thing that
chills my very blood to tell:
There in the
temple court a creature stood,
in form a man, but
beast or devil, which,
I know not. Gropingly, as one insane,
he flung a gift of
silver down and cried:
“I cannot take
this money, for it burns
my very soul! ....
the price of innocent Blood!”[2]
But when I looked
again, I only saw
the mother smiling
down upon her Child –
and Joseph near
them ... No, I could not bear
to tell the half
of all that I foreknew.
Sister Mary of the Visitation
Magnificat.
February 1944
