Saturday, January 07, 2017

This is pretty ... for Epiphany.


Learn to love as I love thee.

[Infant Christ] Learn to love as I love thee.
In all my limbs thou mayest see
How sore they quake for cold;
For thee I suffer all this woe,
Love me, sweet, and no mo; [no other]
To thee me take and hold.
[Mary] Jesu, sweet son dear,
In poor bed thou liest now here,
And that grieveth me sore.
For thy cradle is a bier,
Ox and ass are thy fere, [companions]
Weep may I therefore!
Jesu, sweet, be not wroth;
I have neither scrap nor cloth
Thee in for to fold;
I have but a piece of a lappe, [the skirt of a garment]
Therefore lay thy feet to my pap
And keep thee from the cold.
Cold thee taketh, I may well see;
For love of man it must be
For thee to suffer woe;
For better it is thou suffer this
Than man should lose heaven’s bliss.
Thou must ransom him thereto.
Since it must be that thou be dead
To save man from the fiend,
Thy sweet will be done.
But let me not stay here too long:
After thy death me underfonge [receive]
To live for evermore. Amen. - Source
Oh Mary, grant that I may love this way!

2 comments:

  1. ....there is a nice piece over at Unam Sanctam Catholicam: The Ox, Ass, and the Master's Crib, on Dec. 22, '16: re: Isaiah 1:2-3 "The ox knoweth his master, and the ass his Master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood": I never knew the significance of these two specific animals beside the manager in most if not all paintings -
    reading/praying have been so hard for me lately: but...looking at art and gazing outwardly/inwardly I Can do.

    ReplyDelete
  2. “What can I give him, poor as I am?

    If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

    If I were a wise man, I would do my part;

    Yet what I can I give him: give my heart.”

    From In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti

    Simple yet so beautiful. The Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist sent it to me.

    Happy Epiphany everyone!

    ReplyDelete


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