The Virgin
. Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost
With the least shade of thought to sin allied.
Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature’s solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven’s blue coast;
Thy image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in thee
Of mother’s love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene!
With the least shade of thought to sin allied.
Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature’s solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven’s blue coast;
Thy image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in thee
Of mother’s love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene!
William Wordsworth
[…] – Jes. Kramer at CrisisThe SSPX’s Bishop Problem – Thomas Edwards at Catholic HeraldWhere is the ‘Hail Mary’ in the Bible? – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American CatholicWhy Christian Chivalry Still Lives: A […]
Back before I was Catholic I can’t recall having any difficulty with the Hail Mary as a prayer per se, since I could recognize the various pieces of scripture in it. Even the title of Mother of God wasn’t problematic for me as I was reading the Church Fathers and saw them using it (not to mention conciliar definitions), as well as it being a logical corollary of the hypostatic union. Now that I think of it, even asking the Blessed Virgin Mary for intercession wasn’t something that ruffled me too much, as the intercession of the saints seemed to me to be a logical corollary of the “communion of the saints,” which is in the Apostle’s Creed.
I think I was honestly only bothered by the repetitions, since (at the time) it seemed to me weird (as I saw it then) to invoke Mary more than God (such as in the Our Father). Eventually I came to recognize that in the “Hail Mary” one is explicitly recalling the Incarnation, which cannot help but be about Jesus. There is more to it than that, certainly, but that realization helped it to “click” for me, and in recalling that we are also recalling her “fiat,” a fiat we are also supposed to give to God with our own wills. There is a tremendous depth to the Rosary that becomes more expansive the more you pray it.
[…] at Spirit Daily BlogIn Time of Calamities, the Value of Suffering – Quod Scripsi, ScripsiWhere is the ‘Hail Mary’ in the Bible? – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American CatholicSound Advice for Parents From Saint John […]