Sweet Mother, touch my lips that they may be
Empowered more worthily to sing of thee.
Oh, when I lift mine untrained voice to thee,
How short it comes of thy great dignity;
How short, alas, of what I seem to see.
Oh, wonderful, that thou this poverty,
This weary helplessness of soul shouldst see,
Yet spurnest nought of this deficiency
As something worthless. Ah, then, tender me
Some little help wherewith to honour thee.
* * *
Is it not plain? As thy Maternity
The cause first was of Dual-unity,
So is that Union which took place in thee
The Key of Intercession, and the free
Unbounded interchange of Charity.
Upon the Face of God's Anointed, He
Looks down with infinite benignity:
And all His prayers are heard, since He would be,
Through sacrifice of His Humanity,
The Pleader of its cause with Deity.
And thou wouldst share the Sacrifice; wouldst be
The Victim too of that necessity -
The Victim of Compassion. Verily,
His Will and thine were one: and thine would be
The Woman's Sacrifice on Calvary.
This hast thou earned for us, that we may be
Co-partners with thy travail. Ceaselessly
The Church's voice cries Heav'n-ward: one with thee,
And one with Him whose sacred Spouse is she -
His work she carries on triumphantly.
All through the Vast of His creation, see
The Law of Dual-oneness- Law, to be
In action perfect - perfect in degree
Alone where first it ruled; then, diversely,
Claiming its share in this world's destiny.
- text taken from Mary: The Perfect Woman, by Emily Mary Shapcote