Thou in virtue all before thee
Didst excel by grace divine.
Link'd in bonds of purest wedlock,
Thine it was for us to bear,
By the favour of high heaven,
Our immortal Virgin star.
From thy stem in beauty budded
Ancient Jesse's mystic rod;
Earth from thee received the mother
Of the eternal Son of God.
All the human race benighted
In the depths of darkness lay,
When in Anne it saw the dawning
Of the long-expected day.
20. Feast of the Assumption of the B. V. Mary.
(August 15.)
See, to God's high temple above
Mounts amid angel hymns of love,
The mystical ark of grace:
See aloft on victory's throne,
Blended in glory both Mother and Son,
In one eternal embrace!
All the sorrows her bosom bore,
All her pains and afflictions sore,
At length supremely repaid;—
There she reigns on the cloudless height,
Only less than the Lord of light,
In hues immortal arrayed.
