She who reconciles the ill-matched threads
of her life, and weaves them gratefully
into a single cloth -
it’s she who drives the loudmouths from the hall
and clears it for a different celebration
where the one guest is you.
In the softness of evening
it’s you she receives.
You are the partner of her loneliness,
the unspeaking center of her monologues.
With each disclosure you encompass more
and she stretches beyond what limits her,
to hold you.- Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours, trans. A Barrows & J Macy
How splendid. I’ve been playing with Mary (anointing Jesus’ feet) for a service tonight, and this fits the mood perfectly.
(and Rosemary, should you read this, ‘playing with’ has nothing to do with your script!)
Only got to this after church, read it, thought :’Mary!’
How very splendidly you embodied her. Mind you, I will now admit I put a good deal of your intensity into her as I wrote her.
She did feel a bit familiar…
She is of course one of the really great saints – and A list saint.
Ooo, this is all very tantalising! I hope we’ll get to see some of your Mary, Rosemary!
I’ve just realised the spacing is a bit off, I’ll try to fix it.
I fear you won’t, not on here – instead, with any luck, the BVM.
Sorry to miss it out what sounds like an excellent meditation on Mary of B, but very much looking forward to your writing on Mary of N! A pieta meditation? Or something else? Anticipation builds!