Sequence for the Virgin

A royal scepter and a crown

of purple, a fortress

strong as mail!  O fortress

of maidenhood, scepter

all verdant:

The way you bloomed would have startled

the grandsire of us all,

for the life father Adam

stripped from his sons (praise

to you!) slid from your loins.

You never sprang from the dew,

my bloosom, nor from the rain --

that was no wind that swept

over you -- for God's

radiance opened you

on a regal bough.  On the morn

of the universe he saw you

blossoming, and he made you

a golden matrix, O maid

beyond praise, for his word.

Strong rib of Adam!  Out of you

Gold scupted woman:  the mirror

of all his charms, the cares

of his whole creation.  So voices

chime in heaven and the whole

earth marvels at Mary

beloved beyond measure.

Cry, aloud!  A serpent

hissed and a sea of grief

seeped through his forked

words into woman.  The mother

of us all miscarried.

With ignorant hands she

plucked at her womb and bore

woe without bounds.

But the sunrise from your thighs

burnt the whole of her guilt away.

More than all that Eve lost

is the blessing you won.

Mary, savior,

mother of light:

may the limbs of your son be the chords of the song

the angels chant above.

~ Hildegard of Bingen

in Praying with the Benedictines,

a Window on the Cloister