Magnificat

For the Feast of the Assumption:

Let all that hides within my heart,
that dwells within my soul,
show forth the burning light of God
and magnify the Lord.

For he was not too great to look
upon my littleness,
but from it his own smallness took—
and all will call me blessed.

My God did not refuse to see,
so I am not ashamed.
No, he has done great things for me
and holy is his name.

His mercy flows from age to age
as mountain streams pour down.
The poor he shelters in his strength
and scatters all the proud.

The mighty fall beneath his gaze;
the low are lifted up;
and see! he send the rich away
and fills the beggar's cup!

For he has not forgotten us
through all our wand'ring days,
but shapes his mercy from our dust.
Oh, let my soul sing praise!

Drawing; Drawings By Pierre-Paul Prud’hon – This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60840413

Overshadow Us

For the Feast of the Assumption:

Come, Holy Spirit: Overshadow us
and let us rest beneath your outspread wings.
Our frantic efforts only kick up dust;
our voices rise in shouts, but rarely sing.

The heat of anger and the flame of hate
have turned the meadow into desert sand.
We wither in the glare and pray for rain,
but not a cloud is seen above the land.

Oh, cast your shadow over flesh and blood;
let not the moon assail or sun strike down,
but make the gleaming sun a shelt'ring robe,
the moon a footstool and the stars a crown,

and in your shadow, let him be conceived
who shall defeat the serpent at our heel.
Stretch over us that we may yet receive
the Love of God, upon our hearts a seal,

who casts down kings (How fallen are the proud!)
and lifts the beggars to the highest seats
at tables where the feast never runs out.
Oh, may we, too, be welcome there and eat

with her who showed the way all flesh may go
within the overspreading shade of God.
O Spirit, overshadow us once more,
that Christ may dwell forever in our hearts.  Amen.

The Visitation in the Book of Hours of the Duc de Berry; the *Magnificat* in Latin By The Limbourg brothers, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108902 ©Photo. R.M.N. / R.-G. Ojda

Assumption 2021

For the readings for Assumption this past Sunday, combining Revelations and the Magnificat:

Your soul once magnified the Lord;
your spirit sang for joy,
but can you show him in this world
when so much is destroyed?

You sang, and then you wailed aloud:
the dragon swept down stars,
and are you wailing even now
within this world of ours?

One infant leapt to share your joy,
but others now lie still.
Oh, hold them as you did your boy
upon that dreadful hill!

Your kinswoman, she sang with you—
now others join your wail
to weep for those cut down too soon,
struck by the dragon's tail.

How can your music still resound
beneath our blood-red skies?
The mighty have not been cast down;
the poor have yet to rise.

But sing again, O Mother kind,
and weep aloud with us,
until that day dawns for the blind
that God remembers us.

An illustration of the woman of the Apocalypse in *Hortus deliciarum* (redrawing of an illustration dated c. 1180), depicting various events from the narrative in Revelation 12 in a single image. By w:Herrad of Landsberg – [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6602031

Daughter of Heaven

For the Feast of the Assumption, a mash-up of Psalm 45 and the Magnificat, to the tune EVENTIDE (“Abide With Me”):

Daughter of heaven, heed the heavens' call:
grace laid upon you gently as dewfall.
Greatest of kings has put himself in thrall
here at your feet and offers you his all.

Daughter of kings, and now a king's delight,
though deeply shadowed, you in him shine bright.
Lowly, you find high favor in his sight,
oh! and he lifts you up to share his height!

Daughter, within your earthly flesh and blood
flourished the seed that died to be our food.
Look on your children: Pray the Spirit's flood
nourishes us to bear, as you, our good.

Daughter and mother, and queen and handmaid still:
Hungry, we pray God will our hungers fill.
Pray with us, that our fields his grace may till,
making our hearts a harvest of his will.