Dear Mother of Salvation, lo, for thee
Thy thirty years' retreat was bound to be
Thine Education for futurity -
Since thine had been a work ordained to be
Finished alone in God's Eternity.
Thy Life in His was hidden. He in thee
Found the Co-partner of His Destiny.
To human laws the Man would subject be,
Albeit the Godhead with Humanity
In Hypostatic Union deigned to be.
The laws of Nature bade that He should be
To time indebted for maturity.
Yet time for Him was no necessity,
But to obey conditions. So, for thee
He lived and wrought - He educated thee.
The graces of His giving were, in thee,
The Birth-gift of thy Pure Humanity-
Bright jewels hidden in a shrine, to be
Worn on thy brow, and merit gaining. See,
Thy sixteen summers crowned they wondrously.
But time had yet a work wherein should be
Accomplished things Divine in Him and thee.
Forth He would go and serve His Ministry;
Whilst thou must live apart, and patiently
The hour of dread abide for Him and thee.
Dimly at first, but ever steadily
Burned in thy soul the Fire of Heaven's Decree.
God's Sacred Word, by grace infused, would be
Its lantern and its light; and now doth He -
Himself the Word - thy Teacher deign to be.
By word and by example, surely He
Doth thy brave soul inure to hardship. See,
It grows by correspondence - learns to be
Familiar with His Cross: till, perfectly
Resigned, self-immolated, thou shouldst be.
- text taken from Mary: The Perfect Woman, by Emily Mary Shapcote