Everyone's heard of Edgar Allen Poe, the famously troubled 19th century author who wrote the Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, The Premature Burial and much more. It's perhaps less well-known that he wrote a "hymn" to the Blessed Virgin Mary, with reference to the Angelus. Here it is:
“Hymn”
At morn–at noon–at twilight dim–
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and woe–in good and ill–
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the Hours flew brightly by,
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee
Now, when storms of Fate o’ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine.
I like that, and if you think the Mother of Our Lord is Semiramis, you're a fool.
LSP
LSP
6 comments:
oh, that's lovely. I'd never heard that poem.
Poe, a literary genius, was on a search for salvation for himself and for those around him. That search manifest itself in fear, that in time, possibly lead to a greater understanding where hope replaced anxiety.
We all have to resolve matters in our own lives and to develop our personal relationships with each other and with God. That's never easy.
Poe found it exceptionally difficult because his journey was clouded by profound grief. Resolving grief and loss can be overwhelming and all-absorbing if you take it all on yourself rather than allowing some of that burden to be lifted.
I don't want to turn my comment into a sermonette, but it's grist for one.
It's not easy to allow some of that burden [of grief or loss] to be lifted.
You must compound your current heartbreak with the breaking of ego.
To let other people or God help lift the burden is to admit you can't carry everything on your own. Which sounds sweet in theory, but for someone steeped in self-reliance, is pure hell. That's my two cents.
A beautiful hymn, and a beautiful icon, thanks Padre.
All good sermon material.
Did you know Andy Warhol was a daily Mass going Catholic?
Speaking of sermons...
Post a Comment