Fourth Station; Jesus meets Mother Mary

Photograph of Wall Art - with thanks to the Artist

Jesus meets His Mother. The woman who conceived Him. The woman who grew Him in her body, whose blood coursed through His veins through their shared placenta until He was ready for birth. The woman who birthed Him in the physical anguish all woman share when they give the gift of their child to the world. The woman who breastfed Him, cared for Him, fled with Him from soldiers who had been sent to kill Him. The woman who had picked Him up when He fell, nursed Him when He got sick, taught Him the Torah, the Word of God. The woman who had believed in Him at Cana, encouraging Him to start His Mission. The woman who had loved Him from the very first, and who now saw the results of hours of torture at the hands of a gang. The sword that Simeon had prophesied entered her soul. We who have suffered know that there is an emotional and spiritual pain from deepest suffering which causes actual physical pain; it constricts the chest, agonises the cardiac area, affects the breathing, constricts the throat muscles, weakens the knees. This is the suffering this brave woman went through. And this indeed was her finest hour; the mother of a criminal, shortly to be stripped completely naked to the gaze of gawking crowds as was the Roman custom at a crucifixion, she stood by Him. Now was the time He needed her most of all. And yet, unsettlingly, her pain served to make His even worse. Seeing her suffering, constricted His heart. And He needed all His strength to get through to the end of this desperate road. Jesus knew well that satan's hordes were all around; this was their hour, the hour of darkness as He proclaimed (Luke 22;53). And yet this gracious Lady, this mother, did not desert Him. Now another suffering clouded His mind - who would look after Her when He was gone? Widows in Israel needed male relatives . . . and the Plan which had begun in His mind as He saw John His disciple accompanying His Mother as they followed Him on the road to crucifixion began to take root. He who was soon to lose His earthly life would give her a new son to care for her; and a new mother to comfort John when He missed the companionship of His most beloved Messiah. As He shakily moved past His Mother towards His execution, He began to think; He must tell them . . . 'Mother, here is your son. Son, here is your mother' . . . He prayed for the physical strength to bear what lay ahead, and to still have sufficient strength to utter the words . . . 

And so this brave man stumbled forward past the woman who birthed Him to the hell that lay ahead in the wood, the thorn and the iron nail -

'Lord Jesus, thank You. Words cannot convey our gratitude to You for selflessly taking up the burden of this painful death to make things right between our race of humanity and Yours of Divinity. By giving up your Immortal status for a time and becoming a human like us, you made it possible for us to touch the Divine in a way we understand - your human hand, your prayer tassels on your robe. We could see your hair waving in the wind, hear your laughter at a joke. We could watch from the campfire as you hungrily ate your meal after a long day of ministry and healing. We could see the cracks and dust on your weary feet as you washed them after the long days of winding walking, bringing the message of hope and faith to all.

Let us be worthy of you. Let us be strong. Strengthen us with the power of your arm, the strength of your spirit, the love of your heart. Amen.'

Second Station of the Cross

Photograph of Wall Art - with thanks to the Artist 

Jesus accepts His Cross. He could have called on legions of angels to defend Him. He was terrified of the capture. He, together with all the tortured, suffered at the hands of others. He wept tears of humiliation and physical anguish. Yet this courageous spiritual Emperor, this warrior at the head of all the heavenly hosts, humbly and willingly accepted the only instrument that would win our salvation; an untimely and violent death. His death - so gently accepted, the injustice - so quietly endured, was the catalyst that has shamed us down the centuries. We saw, in this gentle GodMan, what we were capable of. And - aghast - we began the process of change. Beginning with Pilate - who regretted his bending to pressure to save his career. Continuing with Peter - who wept anguished tears of contrition at weakening - in the face of a very real threat to his life - to denying his relationship with Jesus. The river of grace and gentle agony on the cross quietly trickled through to a lonely field where a man rent with remorse and inner agony hanged himself for betraying his gentlest of friends, and Judas began his path towards repentance and reconciliation with the King of Forgiveness. The river of love and spiritual reform flowed on towards the soldiers who hammered iron into his body and stood as his life blood ebbed; until the men stood, and began their journey into faith, truly this man was the Son of God. The river flowed on, encompassing the Pharisees and crowd who stood jeering at his physical nakedness and torment of impending death, and surrounded them with forgiveness. The river of Jesus' inner gentleness and compassion eased the death throes of the justly condemned criminal who had inflicted torment and pain on others, easing him into forgiveness and the promise of a whole new life in Paradise. The river continued on as He died, flowing out to the whole world; bringing peace, gentleness, the hope of eternal life and friendship with Him towards me; and towards you . . . 

Jesus wants nothing more than to be our dearest Friend. Why not accept Him now, as you read these words. 'Dear Lord Jesus, I accept your love. Help me on my journey. Amen'.

It is only by accepting our own daily cross - and we all have our difficulties and trials - that we can accept just how heavy His Cross was. The Second Station ... the moment that started the cataclysm that shook our world as we knew it, and began the great process of downfall for satan and his followers . . .

FIRST STATION OF THE CROSS

First Station; Jesus is sentenced to execution 

Pilate is dismayed at Jesus' Fate; he protests by the symbolic 'washing of hands' . 
For the Roman Feast of Lemuria the pater familia got up at midnight, and washed his hands with pure water. After the ablution he would repeat a prayer nine times. 
It is probable that Pilate was ritually purifying his hands of the deed he was reluctantly pressurized into; and prayed that he was innocent of responsibility for Jesus' execution.

Third, Seventh and Ninth Stations of the Cross

Photograph of Wall Art - with thanks to the Artist   

The Third, Seventh and Ninth Stations of the Cross

Jesus falls under the heavy wooden load

Fifth Station of the Cross

Photograph of Wall Art - with thanks to the Artist

Fifth Station of the Cross; Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus with His burden

MOTHER OF THE MYSTICAL BODY

MOTHER OF THE MYSTICAL BODY

Canst thou forget that breathless day

when hidden in thy womb there lay,

("Ave" and Fiat" being said,)

we the members, Christ the Head?

Canst thou forget that happy morn

when thou didst see thy newly born

asleep within a manger bed

we the members, Christ the Head?

Canst thou forget the bitter woe

of that Good Friday long ago,

the cross where agonising bled

we the members, Christ the Head?

Oh Mother, thou canst not forget,

His suffering members bleeding yet,

till time to timelessness has fled,

we the members, Christ the Head

Sister M Aurea BVM

Sign. January 1961

__________________________________________________________

"Ave" - Hail

"Fiat" - Let it be done

From 'A Silence full of bells'

THE LIGHTED LAMP - QUOTE FOR THE DAY

If you light a lamp for someone else it will also brighten your path 

~ Gautama Buddha

WHAT OUR NURSES DO

"How many people can claim to have saved even one life - 

think then of what our nurses do!!!"

Quote read in Hospital Waiting Room

A Silence full of Bells - Foreword Part Four

In poems of varying design, intention and effect, therefore, the nun-poets sing the praises of the Theotokos, of Mary as the Mother of God. Her role as the mother of humankind is equally important. In this context, she performs various functions, serving at times as an example of perfect motherhood, but more often as a mediatrix or intercessor, and as a source of hope and joy.

In "Fifth Dolour" by Sr M Lalemant, CSJ, for instance, associates the sorrow of the Blessed Virgin explicitly with "the torturous exchange / of Son for sons". So, too, Sr M Julian Baird, RSM, recognises the poverty of the "exchange" when she writes in "The Ascension":

          Only long afterward
          John realised
          with what renunciation Mary turned away
          from heaven's gate to Him
          and smiled.

As mediatrix and intercessor, Mary is ever-present. Sr Maris Stella, CSJ, in "At the Shrine", sees the Blessed Virgin (literally a statue of her in her role of Our Lady of Peace) as "the lady who is not an image on a hillside / but a listening heart near by in accessible heaven".

The nun-poet's patent belief that bitterness and pain are made bearable by turning to Mary is illustrated; Sr M Philip, CSC, uses the technique of juxtaposing opposites to emphasise the motherhood of Mary in the poem "Cause of Our Joy": in a world of "darkness", "glaciers", "snow", "crags", "depths" and "storms", Mary provides "a star / to blaze the trail", "the warmth / of a fire's glow", "a rope / to hold me tight:, and - most essentially - "herself / with all her love". Sr Maris Stella, too, in a poem of the same name emphasises not only Our Lady's mothering of the baby Jesus, but also of her "other children who will always keep / the joy of your mysterious mothering, / Cause of our joy, heaven's gate, ... our mother".

Belief in the Mariological dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into Heaven was traditional from as early as the sixth century, and was solemnly defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Although this theme has inspired much beautiful poetry over the centuries, it is, like the theme of the Immaculate Conception, somewhat less often explored by the nun-poets. However, among them as well, it has produced some strikingly beautiful and, at times, hauntingly original poems.

In "Memories of the Assumption", Sr M Angeline, SSND, allows Mary's Assumption to parallel the Resurrection of her Son, with the re-opening of the tomb of "her of the Crucified", and makes use of a long-standing, though not Biblical, tradition in the final stanza, where lilies represent purity:

          There was a swift intake of breath,
          a hurried silent prayer:
          startled they opened the new-made tomb
          to find but lilies there.

Sr M Denis, OP, combines Biblical and traditional images with more everyday symbols, writing in "Flying Birds: On the Feast of Our Lady's Assumption" of birds flying in perfectly synchronised formation, and imagining the angels to have flown in a similar manner when carrying Mary up to Heaven, gazing on her

          ... whom clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet,
          they bear to joyful reunion with her Son -
          with Him who is also her God.

Sr M Julian, RSM, creatively imagines the jewellery crafted for the Blessed Virgin's celestial espousal to God in "For Our Lady's Espousals". In the final stanza, where she describes the Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven, which was traditionally help to have followed the Assumption, she skilfully combines the traditional Apocalyptic symbols with a very original application of human and natural imagery:

          In after-time
          standing upon a moon-throne
          she will wear the stars for crown:
          about slim, queenly shoulders will be thrown
          the royal cloak of sunrise.

Having thus completed our consideration of the poems anthologised here in terms of the inspirational themes of the four articles of Catholic belief concerning Our Lady, it is also interesting to note that many which reveal the most modern content and/or the most striking messages and techniques in fact date from the 1940's, from the years of the Second World War, rather than from later decades. Thus Sr Maura, SSND, writes forcefully of the Blessed Virgin in "Our Lady of Science" that she is "a geometric form, / [a] being perfect in the subtle mind; / ... a prism glass ... / ... all elements combined, / [a] crucible of heart upstirred and warm". In similar vein, Sr Maryanna, OP, writes of "Our Lady of the Lab", purposely using the abbreviated, familiar-yet-impersonal version of the word "laboratory" to introduce a poem whose juxtaposition of Our Lady with scientific apparatus ("slab of glass", "vials and jars", "gaseous clouds", "test-tube[s]", "trough[s]" and "hydrogen sulphide")initially appears incongruous, indeed jarring. Yet it is by the combination of a scientific image ("acid") with one of the oldest images of monotheistic religion that Our Lady's power to bless and protect humankind from the lures of evil is made manifest :
           ... To her care
          consign the young Curies who dabble there
          lest, greatest of all dangers, they should meet
          the serpent acid-fanged beneath her feet.




There can be few themes, whether in the Christian scriptures and tradition or elsewhere, which continue to produce such a great harvest of poetry of quality as these four themes of the Immaculate Conception, virginity, divine motherhood and Assumption of Our Lady. Apart from its worth as poetry in its own right, the selection anthologised here, particularly insofar as it makes available poetry written during the earlier twentieth century, provides an important literary-historical corrective on the general critical view of the modernist period as negative, fragmented and sceptical. The work of the nun-poets, even those poems on subjects of unhappiness, is invariably trusting and optimistic, due to the shining conviction of their faith that, whatever may befall them or humanity in general, God exists, loves His Creation, and is always in ultimate control.

Indeed, after reading Dr Whittle's doctoral dissertation, Prior Robert Stewart, OFM, the Provincial of the Order of Friars Minor in Southern Africa, described it as a weighty tome, but well worth the effort of digesting three hundred pages, since the research reflected in its pages rediscovered and made manifest a world of hope which readers never knew existed in the world of existential Angst.


AD JESUM PER MARIAM.

Dr Margaret Mary Raftery
BA Hons, HDE, MA (UND), M Phil (Oxon), PhD (UOFS)
Senior Lecturer English Dept, UOFS, Bloemfontein, South Africa
February 2000

Edited by Catherine Nicolette Whittle

A Silence full of Bells - Foreword Part Three

We read first that Anne, the "spinner", creates the "petal-soft, rosewhite, / filament starbright" of Mary, who is to be greeted by an angel with the words "Hail, full of grace". Mary, in her turn, is the "weaver" (a traditional image), creating the "fair-flesh of Christ / fabric unpriced"  (meaning beyond price, though He will, ironically, be bought and sold), while her "virginal womb" is "God's dwelling-place". Christ, then, becomes the cloth, "stretched upon a tree / temple-veil nail rent / silken sheath blood-sprent"; the "sheer humanity / cloaking God's face". The most important aspect of the Christian faith - the salvation of humanity - is thus represented here in terms of a very homely and ordinary female activity: the making of cloth. Traditional images, both literal and metaphorical, are combined with others derived from the Bible (such as the "temple-veil"), while words such as "unpriced" and "sheath" (foreshadowing the shroud) are ironically prospective of Christ's Crucifixion and Death.

In the final stanza, the crucially important salvific significance of all this to humanity is finally made clear, albeit still within the parameters of the imagery of cloth:
      Anne was the spinner
     Mary was the thread
     Christ is the cloth
     I go garmented.


Through Christ's suffering and death, thus, and by means of the necessary obedience of His Mother and grandmother, the speaker, representing humanity, is saved from the sinfulness of Adam and Eve and enabled to "put on [the garment of] the Lord Jesus Christ" as St Paul enjoins us.

In Sr M Julian Baird's much briefer "Virgo Potens" - whose title immediately confronts the readers with an unusual association of words with both male and female connotations - sin and salvation are more explicitly contrasted, within the specific context of the Immaculate Conception. The power of sin may mar the Creation by imprisoning the natural world and even the cosmos - "blind the star, / stifle the sunlight, / web all the winds / in a mesh unbreakable" - but the power of the Blessed Virgin in the service of her Lord is greater: "her immaculate heart alone / could cradle God".

Moving on to the theme of the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which has not been proclaimed an essential element of belief, but is a doctrine based on revelation dating from the early years of the Church, the orthodox teaching on the subject is as follows: The Church holds that Mary was a virgin at the time of the conception of Christ (by means of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit - a miracle which humanity must not attempt to understand); and that she retained virginal status throughout her life. 

In addition to poems proclaiming or celebrating the theme of Mary's virginity, such as "Total Virgin" by Jessica Powers (Sr Miriam of the Holy Spirit) and "The Virgin Mother" by Sr Maura, SSND, there are also lyrics which draw an intimately personal parallel between the Blessed Virgin's fruitful virginity and the lives of the nun-poets themselves. One of the most moving of these is "A Nun to Mary, Virgin" by Sr M St Virginia, BVM. Here, Mary is an inspiring example,a shield, and a source of loving consolation for the trials of misunderstanding and ridicule of her virginal life which beset the speaker: "I had gone fruitless and defenceless, Lady, / had it not been for your strange Blossoming; / ... my having life had been a thing to mourn for, / passing none on ... Without you, I had cringed beneath men's scorn for / skylarks that soar not, trees that do not bloom ..." Our Lady, in offering her Child to the speaker - and to nuns and virgins everywhere ("a million maids") - allows them to "[find] in [her] themselves: and justified". The gradual crescendo of belief and certainty builds up inexorably in the last sentence to the emphatic power of that final line.

We come now to the theme of the second of the Christological dogmas, that of the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary as mother of God and thus of the whole human race. In chapter 8, clause 53 of Lumen Gentium (1964:61), the teaching of the Church on this issue is given as follows:
      The Virgin Mary, who at the message of the angel received the Word of God in 
     her heart and in her body and gave Life to the world, is acknowledged and 
     honoured as being truly the Mother of God and Mother of the Redeemer.


Since the Council of Ephesus in 431, which countered the Nestorian heresy in proclaiming Jesus Christ to be both fully divine and fully  human, Our Lady has held the title Theotokos, or God-bearer. In addition, she is acknowledged as the Mother of the whole of humankind, on the basis of Christ's words to her and to His beloved disciple, John, from the Cross (John 19:26-27):
      When Jesus, therefore, had seen His mother and the disciples standing whom He
     loved, He saith to His mother, "Woman, behold, thy son". After that He saith to
     the disciple, "Behold, thy mother". And from that hour, the disciple took her to
     his own.

The work of the nun-poets sings the praises of the Blessed Virgin in both these contexts. Thus, for example, in "Secrets", Sr M Ladonna, SND describes Mary as marked by "rapture" during her pregnancy, a blessed state acknowledged by all aspects of nature and the supernatural, but a mystery to her "wonder-eyed" neighbours, who saw only "that her eyes were wells of awe - / but in heaven Gabriel knew." 

The same poet writes in "Garden Enclosed", the "garden" referring to Mary's soul, "enclosed and guarded well":
    
     My lady is God's Mother
     all holy, virgin white,
     she is His perfect creature;
     she is His first delight!



The concluding stanza of the poem comes close to the claim of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who once described Our Lady as a "Woman-Trinity", a statement perilously close to heresy, were it not used in the metaphorical context of poetry. Not only the Child, but the "Father, Son and Spirit, / the Blessed Trinity" are content to live in the "select enclosure" of the Blessed Virgin's soul.

 Dr Margaret Mary Raftery
BA Hons, HDE, MA (UND), M Phil (Oxon), PhD (UOFS)
Senior Lecturer English Dept, UOFS, Bloemfontein, South Africa
February 2000

A Silence full of Bells - Foreword Part Two

In the context of the Marian poetry written by the nun-poets, the Christological doctrine of Mary's virginity and the dogma of her divine motherhood may be seen to have borne most fruit, with relatively fewer poems being composed on the Mariological dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. Other sources also influenced the nun-poets, for instance Biblical descriptions of events (such as the Wedding Feast at Cana, mentioned in "A Lute for Our Lady", by Sr Maryanna, OP), or the proclamation of the Magnificat, echoed in poems of that name by Sr Agnes and Sr M Thérèse, SDS as well as in "Prolonged Magnificat" by Sr M Columba, IHM; events recorded in the Apocryphal Gospels (such as Mary's dedication as a Temple maiden, described in the almost imagist "Presentation of the Child Mary" by Sr M Julian Baird, RSM, the poignant "Presentation" by Sr M Catherine, OSU and the intimately personal "Candlemas" by Sr M Thérèse, SDS; and her various appearances through the ages, whether officially sanctioned or not (such as "For Our Lady of Lourdes" by Sr M Julian Baird, RSM, "Our Lady of Fatima" by Sr M Paulinus, IHM, and "Lines to Our Lady of Guadalupe" by Mother M Francis, PCC.). Naturally, prayers, rituals and devotions to Our Lady (such as the Rosary, or the Stations of the Cross, or the Angelus, the last -mentioned being particularly well exemplified in the carefully crafted poem "The Angelus" by Mother M Francis, PCC, as well as feast days (particularly those of the Annunciation and Christmas) also stimulated the nun-poets in their poetic praises, as they have done to poets over the centuries.

A less obvious but all-pervasive influence on the nun-poets' Marian lyrics is to be found in the events of their own lives - lives which in many ways echo the daily life of Mary. They must frequently have drawn strength from the example of self-sacrifice of the Blessed Virgin. Thus there are poems imploring Mary's aid in circumstances ranging from the performance of household tasks, as in "Our Lady of the Home" by Sr M Catherine, OSU to an inability to pray or to bear the sorrows of life, as is manifested in "Ancilla Domini" [the handmaid of the Lord] by Sr M Paula. In such poems, in particular, many of the nun-poets are able to exhibit an imaginative sensitivity to Our Lady which is capable of touching a core of spiritual emotion in the souls of their readers. Indeed, as Walter Croarkin (1940:v), writing in the very period of the American nun-poets' activity, puts it"

     Each age of poets added and filled in where their predecessors had left off, until
     today we find the poets daringly but reverently exploring the most intimate
     details of Mary's soul and her relationship with Christ.

Particularly good examples of this empathetic exploration may be found in the Italian-style sonnet of Sr M Gustave, OP, "Return from Calvary" and in the later "Advent Song" by Mother M Francis, PCC, whose last and most poignantly intimate stanza reads:
      but when the little Seed fell in the furrow,
     the warm and spotless furrow of your heart,
     tell us what pure songs stirred your delicate wonder,
     what secret music whispered down your veins.



As can be seen from even a brief perusal of the poems anthologised here, some of the lyrics are highly structured, and some more impressionistic in style. In her dissertation, Dr Whittle (1998:125) quotes one of the most talented of the nun-poets, Sr M Thérèse Lentfoehr, DS, as offering an almost mystical explanation of her initial method of composition and its further development:

     I remember never to have been consciously concerned with technique; the
     poetic lines sang themselves into my mind as if to some pre-conceived melody,
     the poem thus forming itself quite completely before a word was confided to
     paper. This, I find, is the method I have followed ever since with this difference,
     that now I revise constantly and tirelessly until at times the result surprises me
     with its newness. I believe that a poet achieves his fullest freedom under
     discipline. A poem must become a part of me, must live with me a long time
     before I write it.

We may now proceed to consider two of the poems relating either partially or in their entirety to the theme of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This dogma was proclaimed in 1854 by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus, but has a tradition dating back at least to 1477, when Pope Sixtus IV approved the feast day relating to it in Cum Praeexcelsa. It is taken by the nun-poets as a mirror of example. In "Garmenting", Sr Maryanna, OP, quotes St Paul's Epistle to the Romans (xiii:14): "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ", where the phrase is used in the context of living a holy life and resisting temptation. She interprets the injunction in a more literal fashion, and allows it to lead her to a comparison of St Anne, the Blessed Virgin, and the Saviour, all in terms of the image of cloth and in relation to herself, or to humankind.

Dr Margaret Mary Raftery
BA Hons, HDE, MA (UND), M Phil (Oxon), PhD (UOFS)
Senior Lecturer English Dept, UOFS, Bloemfontein, South Africa
February 2000

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

"Don't ever try to teach a pig to sing - 

it's a waste of time, and it annoys the pig."

WITNESSES TO HOPE

"Bring your lamp to those without light, 

enkindle the flame of love in those without hope." (Tagore) 

http://witnessestohope.org/2014/06/09/the-altars-light/

With thanks to witnessestohope.org

A Silence Full of Bells - Foreword Part One

 

 

  Graham Hough, discussing twentieth-century poetry (in Bradbury 1976:320), describes writing a series of lyrics,
as opposed to larger-scale literary works with their stricter formal requirements, as rather like keeping a spiritual diary. He continues:

    Much twentieth-century criticism has played down the biographical connection between the poet and his poems, and regards the work as an artefact, floating free from its creator.
  But this cannot disguise the fact that poetry which takes the lyric as its primary model will always tend to follow the contours of individual experience.

  Indeed, it may well be the very fervour of this individual experience which enables the modern lyric in general, and the Marian poetry of the nun-poets anthologised here in particular, to involve the present-day reader with great immediacy and thus to convey a depth of significance almost unknown in other genres.

North American nun-poets
  This anthology presents a body of poetry hitherto practically unknown and uncommented upon in literary histories - in the main, that of North American nun-poets of the 1920s to the 1950s.
  Many of these nun-poets, far from being sequestered from the world in remote cloisters, were active in the world; many were members of the Catholic Poetry Society of America, founded in 1931.




  Their literary work, however, if disseminated at all, generally saw the light of day only in very ephemeral publications, and had thus within two decades become all but inaccessible to readers until Dr Luky Whittle returned it to its rightful place among the writing of the modernist period in her "Images of Mary".
  The poems anthologised represent a selection from the work of the nun-poets investigated in that study, with the addition of several nun-poets working in later decades and in other countries, including South Africa.
  The poems have been chosen on the basis of the religious faith and devotion which they reveal, and the immediacy with which they engage the reader. Hence, the focus in this introduction is on the spiritual significance of the works, rather than on literary-theoretical critique.



Marian poetry
  Marian poetry in English has a long and distinguished history dating back to the very origins of the language itself.
  The earliest extant English Marian poetry is found in the eighth century AD and is the product of the pen of the Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf, who makes use of the impressive rhetoric of Latin and Greek songs of praise.
  The twelfth century sees St Godric writing Marian lyrics such as "A Cry to Mary".
  Through the Middle Ages, however, most of the Marian poets are anonymous, either for reasons of religious humility, or simply due to the passage of time.
  A dramatic decline in the volume of Marian poetry occurred during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although there were notable exceptions such as the Jesuit Robert Southwell (1561-1595). In the nineteenth century, along with individuals such as the priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), the mainly Anglican poets of the Oxford Movement and the Pre-Raphaelites were responsible for a new flowering of Marian poetry.


Twentieth century
I  n the twentieth century there have been periods of great interest in Our Lady, both in the decades when the poems selected for this anthology were written and in the present day, when the approach of a new millennium (the bi-miillennium of Christianity) has brought with it a renewed reverence for the Mother of God, evidenced inter alia in the phenomenon of Medjugorje (which is still under consideration by the Church).
  Hailed as the Theotokos (God-bearer) by the Council of Ephesus as early as 431 AD, Mary was in 1950 proclaimed by Pope Pius XII to have been assumed body and soul into heaven.
  Life Magazine thought it accurate to announce in its Christmas edition of 1996 that: "Two thousand years after the Nativity, the mother of Jesus is more beloved [and] powerful ... than ever".




  Clearly, recognition of this love and power is as strong today as in the decades when the nun-poets whose poetry is anthologised here were active.
  In the words of Fr Frederick M Jelly OP (1997:133):

   As mysterious as the eschatological doctrines might be, we who are still living in the Pilgrim Church are bonded with our brothers and sisters in the heavenly Church from throughout space and time, and are helped on our pilgrimage of faith by our liturgical and private devotions in relation to the intercession and mediation of Mary and all the saints, as well as by the inspiration of their holy
lives in Christ, the Crown of all the saints.


Mariology
  Mariology is an organic element of the redemptive saga of Christ in Catholic doctrine.
  As Pope Pul VI put it in Marialis Cultus (1974:23), "In the Virgin Mary everything is relative to Christ and dependent upon Him".       
  Many of the nun-poets' works reflect this reciprocal, or mirroring relationship.
  So, for example, in "Child and Madonna" by Sister M Ada CSJ, Christ is described as the "Grain of Wheat" and Mary as the field which bears His "yield".


  In terms of the priority thus afforded by the Church to the mutual relationship of Christ and Our Lady, the four most important Catholic articles of belief relate to the Blessed Virgin's Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, her divine maternity, and her Assumption.

  According to the Bible, supported by Catholic dogma and tradition, this is Our Lady's story:
   An angel sent from God invited her to be the Mother of His Son, and she became His handmaid, while remaining an immaculate virgin. Joseph, to whom she was betrothed, perplexed by what appeared to be infidelity on her part, pondered ways of terminating their betrothal without public disgrace. His doubts were allayed when God again sent an angel, to explain the Divine Origin of the Incarnation. Having travelled to Bethlehem for a census, Mary gave birth in a stable because there was no room in the inn. In the dead of night she fled to Egypt to protect her Child from Herod's wrath. When presenting the baby Jesus in the Temple, she was warned by Simeon that a sword would pierce her heart.



Searched for Jesus 
 In Jesus' teenage years, she searched the length and breadth of Jerusalem for three days and nights, and found her Son debating with the Jewish priests. His first miracle, at Cana, was performed at her request.
  We hear little or nothing of her from this point on until, years later, she met Him, battered, bruised and bleeding, as He carried His Cross on the road to Calvary.
   She stood grieving beneath this Cross and watched Him die an appalling death, nails piercing His Hands and Feet.
  When His Body was taken down from the Cross, she received Him in her arms, as she had held Him as her Child.
  She remained close to the apostles after His death and may be assumed to have met Him after His Resurrection, and to have bidden Him farewell when He ascended to Heaven.

Paraclete



  She was with the apostles in prayer when the Paraclete sent by Christ overshadowed and transformed them into fearless advocates of the Gospel.
  On her own death, she, like the prophet Elijah, was assumed body
and soul into Heaven.
  As the Mother of God, she is also the mother of humanity, and thus our primary and most effective advocate, or intercessor.

Dr Margaret Mary Raftery
BA Hons, HDE, MA (UND), M Phil (Oxon), PhD (UOFS)
Senior Lecturer English Dept, UOFS, Bloemfontein, South Africa
February 2000

Bradbury, Malcolm (Ed)  1976.     Modernism. Harmondsworth: Penguin

Jelly OP, Frederick M, F    1997.  Roman Catholic Response to the Ecumenical Theme. ("Ut Omnes Unum Sint", PT3). In: Mariological Association of America: Marian Studies. Volume 48. 

Apostolic Exhortation of His Holiness Paul VI Marialis Cultus 
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19740202_marialis-cultus_en.html 

WINKING GLITTER OF A FROSTY DAWN

A favourite poem

". . . On the grey stone. In silver the
 wonder of a Christmas townland,
 the winking glitter of a frosty
 dawn. Cassiopeia was over Cassidy's
 hanging hill, I looked and three
 whin bushes rode across 
 The Horizon. - The Three Wise
 Kings. An old man passing . . ."
                       Patrick Kavanagh

See; A Childhood Christmas http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/chrischild.html

THE MIRACLE OF MY EAR

     The Miracle of my Ear . . . 
         touched, healed, whole
            by the Hand of the Man from Galilee. 

A moment ago I was here, unbelieving
    ready to take him hostage;
       and now I kneel, in the dust,
         disbelief written over my face
            hands clutching my ear, the
               blood still there from the
                 agonising swordcut;
                    and now healed; whole.

As I said. I was an unbeliever, a moment ago.
   Now I kneel, a believer. My eyes wide,
       surprised as they take Him.
          And leaving me behind; healed. whole.

Catherine Nicolette Whittle



Matthew 26; http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26

With thanks to Biblegateway

A SILENCE full of bells

This selection of Marian praise poetry by nun-poets will be made available in a series of blog posts which will follow shortly.

A SILENCE

full of bells

a selection of Marian praise poetry

by nun-poets

compiled and presented by Lucia A Whittle

foreword by Margaret M Raftery

first printed by Little Flower Press, Virginia 9430, South Africa, 2000AD

A SILENCE full of bells

A SILENCE

full of bells

a selection of Marian praise poetry

by nun-poets

compiled and presented by Lucia A Whittle

foreword by Margaret M Raftery

first printed by Little Flower Press, Virginia 9430, South Africa, 2000AD

SPILLING LAMPLIGHT

Why are you so afraid, little church?
       crouched so young and new on a green hillside?
hear the sounds of fresh young singing drift from your
       new wooden eaves
          there is no need to be frightened.
The blood of martyrs is your growth
          the sign of the Virgin your word of wisdom

Why are you so lonely, church?
      look! light your candles in all your joyous windows
open your doors wide and spill the lamplight
     onto the greengrass
   for Jesus stands without, protecting you with      homespun cloak from the morningrain
he protects you from the ravening wolves

so rejoice, church

Catherine Nicolette Whittle

THE FATHER

Finest of fathers, sometimes I reflect
upon your patient rectitude and gentle way,
your humble courtesy to all failed to eject
integrity, nor courage held at bay.
Your eyes revealed your mild soul, clean and kind,
your words were ever tolerant and fair.
The lowest place was yours, you stayed behind,
let others claw and elbow for your share.
You neither longed for wealth nor cared for fame,
your wage derived as streams poured from your brow,
you passed unseen - few ever knew your name
and when you died in agony, few cared how.
The memory of your meekness deems it odd
that your face looms each time I think of God.

Luky Whittle