The Annunciation

It's the Feast of the Annunciation today and you can imagine Mary's conversation with Joseph, several months after her meeting with the angel.

"Mary, you're pregnant."

"Don't worry, the Holy Spirit did it."

What a brave young woman. She ran the risk of being stoned to death or, at the very least, being outcast from the community with no means of support. Fortunately an angel intervened again in the affairs of men, and put Joseph straight. Here's a prayer, taken from the concluding Collect of the Angelus:

WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought into the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

God bless,

LSP

Edgar Allen Poe and the Blessed Virgin Mary

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