The Divine Lamp

Besides this post I had hoped to post a brief history of the doctrine of the Logos prior to the Arian heresy, but this is impossible due to illness.  What follows is taken from the Divine Comedy and is a prayer the great Florentine poet put on the lips of St Bernard.

Maiden and Mother, daughter of thine own Son,
Beyond all Creatures lowly and lifted high,
Of the Eternal Design the corner-stone!

Thou art she who did man’s substance glorify
So that its own Maker did not eschew
Even to be made of mortality.

Within thy womb the Love was kindeld new
By generation of whose warmth supreme
This flower to bloom in peace eternal grew.

Here thou to us art the full noonday beam
Of love revealed: below, to mortal sight,
Hope, that forever springs in living stream.

Lady, thou art so great and hast such might
That whoso grave grace, nor to thee repair,
Their longing even without wing seeketh flight.

Thy charity doth not only him up-bear
Who prays, but in thy bounty’s large excess
Thou oftentimes dost even forerun the prayer.

In thee is pity, in thee tenderness,
In thee magnificence, in thee the sum
Of all that in creation most can bless.

Update: I took a few hours sleep and am feeling better  (not that anyone amnong my not-so-multitudinous readers had the decency to ask;-!)