In this beautiful poem, a short excerpt of which you will find below, 19th-century Jesuit priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins explores Mary's role in the Incarnation, and her own Immaculate nature. To read the entire poem, click here. It is a lovely meditation for today's Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
This
air, which, by life’s law,
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race—
Mary
Immaculate,My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race—
Merely a woman, yet
Whose presence, power is
Great as no goddess’s
Was deemèd, dreamèd; who
This one work has to do—
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.
--Gerard Manley Hopkins
To read Gerard Manley Hopkins' complete poem, click here.
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