This month, I'm putting in part of a poem by English Jesuit poet, Gerard Manly Hopkins. I am not putting in on my other blog because, while it's got nature in it and expresses a form of Christianity, it has many specifically Roman Catholic ideas I do not agree with. Hope you enjoy it!
The May Magnificat*
| May is Mary’s month, and I |
| Muse at that and wonder why : |
| Her feasts follow reason, |
| Dated due to season—** |
| Candlemas, Lady Day ; |
| But the Lady Month, May,** |
| Why fasten that upon her, |
| With a feasting in her honour ? |
| Flesh and fleece, fur and feather, |
| Grass and greenworld all together ; |
| Star-eyed strawberry-breasted |
| Throstle*** above her nested |
| Cluster of bugle blue*** eggs thin |
| Forms and warms the life within ; |
| And bird and blossom swell |
| In sod or sheath or shell. |
| All things rising, all things sizing |
| Mary sees, sympathizing |
| With that world of good |
| Nature’s motherhood. |
| Their magnifying of each its kind |
| With delight calls to mind |
| How she did in her stored |
| Magnify the Lord. |
| Well but there was more than this : |
| Spring’s universal bliss |
| Much, had much to say |
| To offering Mary May. |
| This ecstasy all through mothering earth |
| Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth |
| To remember and exultation |
| In God who was her salvation. --Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, 1844-1889  *The "Magnificat" is a name given to Mary's song from Luke chapter 1. She sang it when the angel told her she was going to become the mother of the Savior. It starts out, "My soul magnfies [makes great, praises] the Lord..." **There are other feast days honoring Mary. The Roman Catholic Church has set May aside as a month to honor her since the17th century. Pope Francis recently declared the Monday after Pentecost to be a feast day for her, since she seems to have been present at the coming of the Holy Spirit. In 2021, it falls on May 21st. A saints day for her that some Protestants also recognize is August 15th; Catholics take this as the commemoration of her being taken up alive into heaven. The Annunciation, marking of when the angel Gabriel came and announced her divine pregnancy is in March (nine months before Christmas). Candlemas is February 2nd and celebrates the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, coinciding with the end of forced ceremonial confinement that a Jewish woman had for 40 days after the birth of a child. He seems to be saying that nature gives many signs that this month honors Mary. Interestingly, though the US and many other countries celebrate Mother's Day in May, the UK celebrates it in late March. ***Throstle: old-fasioned word for "thrush" ****Many birds' eggs are blue. Blue was chosen as a symbolic color for Mary, representing faithfulness and purity. This is saying, as the eggs warm and nurture life inside, Mary did this as Jesus grew within her. |
