[O MARY OF GRACES]
O Mary of Graces
And Mother of God,
May I tread in the paths
That the righteous have trod.
And mayest thou save me
From evil's control,
And mayest thou save me
In body and soul.
And mayest thou save me
By land and by sea,
And mayest thou save me
From tortures to be.
May the guard of the angels
Above me abide,
May God be before me
And God at my side.
Douglas Hyde.
[THE CATTLE-SHED]
O Trinity of the glorious saints, I marvel
that the White Prince of the Kingdom did descend
as a child into the pure womb of Mary.
Nine months the Master of the Angels stayed
in humility and in great lowliness with her,
lighting a furnace of love within her.
He came down to earth,
the White Lamb, our loosener from sin.
O Mother, who found not a dwelling in the city,
till thou didst come to the stable to seek a bed;
there wast thou lying in poverty,
without wine, without flesh, or one taste in thy mouth;
on the mean barley chaff in the cattle-shed,
she brought forth the only Son of God of the Apostles.
Cold and misery you complained not of as your portion,
and was it not the holy sight in the manger of the ass?