This prayer to our Heavenly Mother in Paradise is so beautiful that I have to share it!
Virgin Mother, daughter of your Son,
humbler and loftier past creation's measure,
the fulcrum of the everlasting plan,
You are she who ennobled human nature
so highly, that its Maker did not scorn
to make Himself the Creature of His creature.
In your womb was the flame of love reborn,
in the eternal peace of whose warm ray
this flower has sprung and is so richly grown.
for us you are the torch of the noonday
of charity; below, you are the spring
of ever-living hope for men that die.
Lady, so great you are, such strength you bring,
who does not run to you and looks for grace,
his wish would seek to fly without a wing.
Not only does your kindness come to brace
our courage when we beg: often your free
favor arrives before our prayer's race.
In you is mercy, in you is piety,
in you magnificence, in you the sum
of excellence in all things that come to be.
Prayer of St. Bernard in Paradiso
(Divine Comedy by Dante, trans. Anthony Esolen, 33.1-21)
