If a need should be:
Cheered, upheld, yea, carried,
Never left alone,
Carried in Thy heart of hearts
To a throne.
GOOD FRIDAY
Lord Jesus Christ, grown faint upon the Cross,
A sorrow beyond sorrow in Thy look,
The unutterable craving for my soul;
Thy love of me sufficed
To load upon Thee and make good my loss
In face of darkened heaven and earth that shook: —
In face of earth and heaven, take Thou my whole
Heart, O Lord Jesus Christ.
GOOD FRIDAY EVENING
“Bring forth the Spear.”
No Cherub’s heart or hand for us might ache,
No Seraph’s heart of fire had half sufficed:
Thine own were pierced and broken for our sake,
O Jesus Christ.
Therefore we love Thee with our faint good-will,
We crave to love Thee not as heretofore,
To love Thee much, to love Thee more, and still
More and yet more.
A BUNDLE OF MYRRH IS MY WELL-BELOVED UNTO ME
Thy Cross cruciferous doth flower in all
And every cross, dear Lord, assigned to us:
Ours lowly-statured crosses; Thine how tall,
Thy Cross cruciferous.
Thy Cross alone life-giving, glorious:
For love of Thine, souls love their own when small,
Easy and light, or great and ponderous.
Since deep calls deep, Lord, hearken when we call;
When cross calls Cross racking and emulous: —
Remember us with him who shared Thy gall,
Thy Cross cruciferous.
EASTER EVEN
The tempest over and gone, the calm begun,
Lo, “it is finished” and the Strong Man sleeps:
All stars keep vigil watching for the sun,
The moon her vigil keeps.
A garden full of silence and of dew
Beside a virgin cave and entrance stone:
Surely a garden full of Angels too,
Wondering, on watch, alone.
They who cry “Holy, Holy, Holy,” still
Veiling their faces round God’s Throne above,
May well keep vigil on this heavenly hill
And cry their cry of love,
Adoring God in His new mystery
Of Love more deep than hell, more strong than death;
Until the day break and the shadows flee,
The Shaking and the Breath.
OUR CHURCH PALMS ARE BUDDING WILLOW TWIGS
While Christ lay dead the widowed world
More willow green for hope undone:
Till, when bright Easter dews impearled
The chilly burial earth,
All north and south, all east and west,
Flushed rosy in the arising sun;
Hope laughed, and Faith resumed her rest,
And Love remembered mirth.
EASTER DAY
Words cannot utter
Christ His returning:
Mankind, keep jubilee,
Strip off your mourning,
Crown you with garlands,
Set your lamps burning.
Speech is left speechless;
Set you to singing,
Fling your hearts open wide,
Set your bells ringing:
Christ the Chief Reaper
Comes, His sheaf bringing.
Earth wakes her song-birds,
Puts on her flowers,
Leads out her lambkins,
Builds up her bowers:
This is man’s spousal day,
Christ’s day and ours.
EASTER MONDAY
Out in the rain a world is growing green,
On half the trees quick buds are seen
Where glued-up buds have been.
Out in the rain God’s Acre stretches green,
Its harvest quick tho’ still unseen:
For there the Life hath been.
If Christ hath died His brethren well may die,
Sing in the gate of death, lay by
This life without a sigh:
For Christ hath died and good it is to die;
To sleep whenso He lays us by,
Then wake without a sigh.
Yea, Christ hath died, yea, Christ is risen again:
Wherefore both life and death grow plain
To us who wax and wane;
For Christ Who rose shall die no more again:
Amen: till He makes all things plain
Let us wax on and wane.
EASTER TUESDAY
“Together with my dead body shall they arise.”
Shall my dead body arise? then amen and yea
On track of a home beyond the uttermost skies
Together with my dead body shall they.
We know the way: thank God Who hath showed us the way!
Jesus Christ our Way to beautiful Paradise,
Jesus Christ the Same forever, the Same today.
Five Virgins replenish with oil their lamps, being wise,
Five Virgins awaiting the Bridegroom watch and pray:
And if I one day spring from my grave to the prize,
Together with my dead body shall they.
ROGATIONTIDE
Who scatters tares shall reap no wheat,
But go hungry while others eat.
Who sows the wind shall not reap grain;
The sown wind whirleth back again.
What God opens must open be,
Tho’ man pile the sand of the sea.
What God shuts is opened no more,
Tho’ man weary himself to find the door.
ASCENSION EVE
O Lord Almighty, Who hast formed us weak,
With us whom Thou hast formed deal fatherly;
Be found of us whom Thou has deigned to seek,
Be found that we the more may seek for Thee;
Lord, speak and grant us ears to hear Thee speak;
Lord, come to us and grant us eyes to see;
Lord, make us meek, for Thou Thyself art meek;
Lord, Thou art Love, fill us with charity.
O Thou the Life of living and of dead,
Who givest more the more Thyself hast given,
Suffice us as Thy saints Thou hast sufficed;
That beautified, replenished, comforted,
Still gazing off from earth and up at heaven
We may pursue Thy steps, Lord Jesus Christ.
ASCENSION DAY
“A Cloud received Him out of their sight.”
When Christ went up to Heaven the Apostles stayed
Gazing at Heaven with souls and wills on fire,
Their hearts on flight along the track He made,
Winged by desire.
Their silence spake: “Lord, why not follow Thee?
Home is not home without Thy Blessed Face,
Life is not life. Remember, Lord, and see,
Look back, embrace.
“Earth is one desert waste of banishment,
Life is one long-drawn anguish of decay.
Where Thou wert wont to go we also went:
Why not today?”
Nevertheless a cloud cut off their gaze:
They tarry to build up Jerusalem,
Watching for Him, while thro’ the appointed days
He watches them.
They do His Will, and doing it rejoice,
Patiently glad to spend and to be spent:
Still He speaks to them, still they hear His Voice
And are content.
For as a cloud received Him from their sight,
So with a cloud will He return ere long:
Therefore they stand on guard by day, by night,
Strenuous and strong.
They do, they dare, they beyond seven times seven
Forgive, t
hey cry God’s mighty word aloud:
Yet sometimes haply lift tired eyes to Heaven —
“Is that His cloud?”
WHITSUN EVE
“As many as I love.” — Ah, Lord, Who lovest all,
If thus it is with Thee why sit remote above,
Beholding from afar, stumbling and marred and small,
So many Thou dost love?
Whom sin and sorrow make their worn reluctant thrall;
Who fain would flee away but lack the wings of dove;
Who long for love and rest; who look to Thee, and call
To Thee for rest and love.
WHITSUN DAY
“When the Day of Pentecost was fully come.”
At sound as of rushing wind, and sight as of fire,
Lo! flesh and blood made spirit and fiery flame,
Ambassadors in Christ’s and the Father’s Name,
To woo back a world’s desire.
These men chose death for their life and shame for their boast,
For fear courage, for doubt intuition of faith,
Chose love that is strong as death and stronger than death
In the power of the Holy Ghost.
WHITSUN MONDAY
“A pure River of Water of Life.”
We know not a voice of that River,
If vocal or silent it be,
Where forever and ever and ever
It flows to no sea.
More deep than the seas is that River,
More full than their manifold tides,
Where forever and ever and ever
It flows and abides.
Pure gold is the bed of that River
(The gold of that land is the best),
Where forever and ever and ever
It flows on at rest.
Oh goodly the banks of that River,
Oh goodly the fruits that they bear,
Where forever and ever and ever
It flows and is fair.
For lo! on each bank of that River
The Tree of Life life-giving grows,
Where forever and ever and ever
The Pure River flows.
WHITSUN TUESDAY
Lord Jesus Christ, our Wisdom and our Rest,
Who wisely dost reveal and wisely hide,
Grant us such grace in wisdom to abide
According to Thy Will whose Will is best.
Contented with Thine uttermost behest,
Too sweet for envy and too high for pride;
All simple-souled, dove-hearted and dove-eyed,
Soft-voiced, and satisfied in humble nest.
Wondering at the bounty of Thy Love
Which gives us wings of silver and of gold;
Wings folded close, yet ready to unfold
When Thou shalt say, “Winter is past and gone:”
When Thou shalt say, “Spouse, sister, love and dove,
Come hither, sit with Me upon My Throne.”
TRINITY SUNDAY
My God, Thyself being Love Thy heart is love,
And love Thy Will and love Thy Word to us,
Whether Thou show us depths calamitous
Or heights and flights of rapturous peace above.
O Christ the Lamb, O Holy Ghost the Dove,
Reveal the Almighty Father unto us;
That we may tread Thy courts felicitous,
Loving Who loves us, for our God is Love.
Lo, if our God be Love thro’ heaven’s long day,
Love is He thro’ our mortal pilgrimage,
Love was He thro’ all aeons that are told.
We change, but Thou remainest; for Thine age
Is, Was, and Is to come, nor new nor old;
We change, but Thou remainest; yea and yea!
CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL
O blessed Paul elect to grace,
Arise and wash away thy sin,
Anoint thy head and wash thy face,
Thy gracious course begin.
To start thee on thy outrunning race
Christ shows the splendour of His Face:
What will that Face of splendour be
When at the goal He welcomes thee?
IN WEARINESS AND PAINFULNESS ST. PAUL
In weariness and painfulness St. Paul
Served God and pleased Him: after-saints no less
Can wait on and can please Him, one and all
In weariness and painfulness,
By faith and hope triumphant thro’ distress:
Not with the rankling service of a thrall;
But even as loving children trust and bless,
Weep and rejoice, answering their Father’s call,
Work with tired hands, and forward upward press
On sore tired feet still rising when they fall,
In weariness and painfulness.
VIGIL OF THE PRESENTATION
Long and dark the nights, dim and short the days,
Mounting weary heights on our weary ways,
Thee our God we praise.
Scaling heavenly heights by unearthly ways,
Thee our God we praise all our nights and days,
Thee our God we praise.
FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION
O Firstfruits of our grain,
Infant and Lamb appointed to be slain,
A Virgin and two doves were all Thy train,
With one old man for state,
When Thou didst enter first Thy Father’s gate.
Since then Thy train hath been
Freeman and bondman, bishop, king and queen,
With flaming candles and with garlands green:
Oh happy all who wait
One day or thousand days around Thy gate.
And these have offered Thee,
Beside their hearts, great stores for charity,
Gold, frankincense and myrrh; if such may be
For savour or for state
Within the threshold of Thy golden gate.
Then snowdrops and my heart
I’ll bring, to find those blacker than Thou art:
Yet, loving Lord, accept us in good part;
And give me grace to wait
A bruised reed bowed low before Thy gate.
THE PURIFICATION OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN
Purity born of a Maid:
Was such a Virgin defiled?
Nay, by no shade of a shade.
She offered her gift of pure love,
A dove with a fair fellow-dove.
She offered her Innocent Child
The Essence and Author of Love;
The Lamb that indwelt by the Dove
Was spotless and holy and mild;
More pure than all other,
More pure than His Mother,
Her God and Redeemer and Child.
VIGIL OF THE ANNUNCIATION
All weareth, all wasteth,
All flitteth, all hasteth,
All of flesh and time: —
Sound, sweet heavenly chime,
Ring in the unutterable eternal prime.
Man hopeth, man feareth,
Man droopeth: — Christ cheereth,
Compassing release,
Comforting with peace,
Promising rest where strife and anguish cease.
Saints waking, saints sleeping,
Rest well in safe keeping;
Well they rest today
While they watch and pray, —
But their tomorrow’s rest what tongue shall say?
FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION
Whereto shall we liken this Blessed Mary Virgin,
Fruitful shoot from Jesse’s root graciously emerging?
Lily we might call her, but Christ alone is white;
Rose delicious, but that Jesus is the one Delight;
Flower of women, but her Firstborn is mankind’s one flower:
He the Sun lights up all moons thro’ their radiant hour.
“Blessed among women, highly favored,” thus
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Glorious Gabriel hailed her, teaching words to us:
Whom devoutly copying we too cry “All hail!”
Echoing on the music of glorious Gabriel.
HERSELF A ROSE, WHO BORE THE ROSE
Herself a rose, who bore the Rose,
She bore the Rose and felt its thorn.
All Loveliness new-born
Took on her bosom its repose,
And slept and woke there night and morn.
Lily herself, she bore the one
Fair Lily; sweeter, whiter, far
Than she or others are:
The Sun of Righteousness her Son,
She was His morning star.
She gracious, He essential Grace,
He was the Fountain, she the rill:
Her goodness to fulfil
And gladness, with proportioned pace
He led her steps thro’ good and ill.
Christ’s mirror she of grace and love,
Of beauty and of life and death:
By hope and love and faith
Transfigured to His Likeness, “Dove,
Spouse, Sister, Mother,” Jesus saith.
ST. MARK
Once like a broken bow Mark sprang aside:
Yet grace recalled him to a worthier course,
To feeble hands and knees increasing force,
Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Christina Rossetti Page 38