MARCH TWENTY-FIFTH

MARCH TWENTY-FIFTH*

How dear it was that Nazareth night,

your heart all trembling with delight

when all eternity stood still

and seraphs hung with bated thrill

to wait upon your will,

sweet Lady.

Your burning heart with rapture stirred

the Father's still unuttered Word,

the Spirit's outpoured fire became,

upon the accents of your Name,

an alabaster Flame,

sweet Lady.

Down, down that midnight's depthless sea,

mid paeans of soundless melody

eternity had come to rest

timed to the heart beats of your breast,

close to the Word made Flesh,

Sweet Lady.

Sister M Consolata VHM

Ave Maria. 23 March 1957

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*Feast of the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary that she would bear the Christ-Child

From'A Silence full of bells'

A SONG FOR MARY

A SONG FOR MARY

Here is May come softly in,

sing unto my Lady,

robin shout with cheerful din,

sing unto my Lady.

Here is May all gaily dressed,

smile upon my Lady,

purple lilac at her breast,

smile upon my Lady.

Here is May, sweet-scented, fair,

bow before my Lady;

apple blossoms in her hair

bow before my Lady.

Sister M Consilia PHJC

Catholic World. May 1947

From 'A Silence full of bells'

LENT: STATIONS OF THE CROSS

THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS

During Lent Christians celebrate the Stations of the Cross in devout commemoration of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the first Good Friday.  Present at Christ’s journey to his death was the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Watching her Son die, she suffered with him.  To the melody of the ancient Stabat Mater hymn, the following lyrics may be sung:

First Station: Jesus is condemned to death

Though he knew that Christ was blameless

Pilate in a deed most shameless

To the cross him did condemn

Second Station: Jesus takes up his cross

With contempt the rabble varmints

Robed the King in royal garments

To deride his royalty

Third Station: Jesus falls the first time

Weakened by the brutal flaying

Yet the wicked rule obeying

Jesus fell beneath the cross

Fourth station: Jesus meets his mother, Mary

When he met his holy Mother

Who had served him as no other

Eyes at eyes in silence gazed

Fifth Station: Simon helps Jesus carry the cross

Seeing Jesus in his meekness

Tremble from exhausted weakness

Simon helped him bear his cross

Sixth Station: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

The image of his holy face

Never after was erased

From Veronica’s soothing cloth

Seventh Station: Jesus falls the second time

For the second time he stumbled

Flattened by the cross he crumbled

Yet he rose despite the pain

Eighth Station: Jesus speaks to the women of Jerusalem

Mothers of Jerusalem

Wept until he counselled them:

Save your weeping for your own

Ninth Station: Jesus falls the third time

Once again he tripped and fell

Still amid the taunts of hell

Rose and bore the cross again

Tenth Station: Jesus is stripped of his garments

Lily of all purity

How they shamed thy dignity

When they tore thy garments off

Eleventh Station: Jesus is nailed to the cross

Hideous nails through hands and feet

Still the Lamb refused to bleat

As his mother‘s heart was pierced

Twelfth Station: Jesus dies on the cross

When she stayed close by his side

For the time until he died

She sustained him by her love

Thirteenth Station: Jesus is taken down from the cross

When they took him down they laid him

In her arms a cradle made him

For her Son, the King of kings

Fourteenth Station: Jesus is laid in the sepulchre

Joseph’s sepulchre received him

He was dead – yet she believed him

Three days on he rose from death

Luky Whittle - 1998

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT STATIONS OF THE CROSS? VISIT
http://www.catholic.org/prayers/station.php

With thanks to youtube and catholic.org

THE FOURTH STATION

THE FOURTH STATION*

On blood-stained cobblestones

she stands,

holding out to Him

her helpless hands.

Her tear-filled eyes are dark

with all the woe

of mothers who have watched

their children go

Down bitter paths of pain

to die - 

the while she, anguished, stands

all helpless by.

Sister M Consilia PHJC

Catholic World. March 1947

____________________________
*The Fourth Station of the Cross: Jesus meets His afflicted mother.

From 'A Silence full of bells'

PROLONGED MAGNIFICAT

PROLONGED MAGNIFICAT

Against the dark I need no dawn brave wings

whose flight is not so vast as my desire

a canticle intense as light made fire

is freedom's cadenced symbol now and flings

to braver heights the song Our Lady sings.

its pain-poised tones new spans of peace acquire

and rise for joyance a sky-piercing spire,

"For He who is mighty has done great things."

The bound alone are free; I know it so,

my triple bonds* make freedom triply strong

in ordered strength a plainsong way I go,

the singing way my Mother goes along.

Matching my halting tones to hers I know

essential freedom is her living song.

Sister M Columba IHM

Catholic World. December 1959

___________________
*A reference to the three vows, poverty, chastity and obedience made by religious like the poet

From 'A Silence full of bells'

ECCE VENIT

ECCE VENIT*

The hills caught up

the rhythm of her feet,

the hills of Eden,

everlasting hills

caught up the singing rhythm

of her feet,

where wisdom played

before the world began.

and all the hills on earth

have caught it up,

the rhythm of her feet,

the everlasting singing rhythm 

of her feet.

She comes

across the hills,

across the singing hills,

she comes, and lo!

The word like music spills

over the earth,

and over the hills,

she comes,

Maria!

over the hills!

Her feet are strong,

the Queen of heaven walks on fleet-shod feet

and strong;

the haughty hills are levelled,

flooding valleys for her feet

who follow where she walks.

Her feet are strong,

for she is Queen

where Holiness

is King;

For she is Bride of Everlasting Rest,

of Everlasting Fruitfulness the Bride,

mistress of earth,

and she is quick with Life,

pregnant with Light.

Maria!

Sister Chyrysostom OSB

Caelcilia. December 1957

__________________
*Look! She is coming.

From 'A Silence full of bells'

PRAYER IN THE MARIAN YEAR

PRAYER IN THE MARIAN YEAR

Not all the blackness of apparent nightfalls,

nor all the evils of the coming years

could stay your spirit, flashing out its sword-play

above the fallen body of men's fears.

Honed with love to the keenest edge of courage

you dared to trust His word (the final test!)

and see an age, when numbers past the counting

would lift your name and call its music blessed.

Now once again, O Maid of rapier vision,

thrust hopeful steel against a darkening sky;

foretell the victory that your Son has promised

Who bears "The King of kings" upon his thigh.

Now slash the air and cleave our doubts asunder -

be thou our sureness, lead us to attack,

whose feeble swords are rusting in our scabbards,

whose necks are crooked with ever looking back.

Sister M Cathlin BVM

America. 10 April 1954

_______________________________________

'Lead us to attack' refers 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'