As we enter now the month of May, I continue to reflect upon beautiful and classical devotion to St Mary as found in the Anglican tradition, indeed centuries before the Oxford Movement and its Anglo-Catholic successors of the nineteenth century and beyond. I hope this summer to focus in my own reading more on the great Anglican poet and mystic Thomas Traherne (1637-1674).
His stature as one of the great “metaphysical poets” continues to grow as the scholarship on his poetry demonstrates both his continuities with ancient devotion and the mystical tradition, and also as a precursor of Romanticism.
More on Traherne as the summer progresses. For today, this first day of May, I want to share this Litany of thanksgiving, drawn from his reflections on the feasts of the saints. Those familiar with Byzantine Orthodox hymns to the Theotokos and the Roman Catholic Litany of Loreto will find a real kinship with Traherne. I come back for reflection to these lovely phrases, so resonant with ancient, medieval and Baroque imagery.
“And first, O Lord, I praise and magnify thy Name
For the Most Holy Virgin-Mother of God,
who is the Highest of thy Saints.
The most Glorious of thy Creatures.
The most Perfect of all thy Works.
The nearest unto Thee in the Throne of God.
Whom thou didst please to make
Daughter of the Eternal Father,
Mother of the Eternal Son.
Spouse of the Eternal Spirit,
Tabernacle of the most Glorious Trinity.
Mother of Jesus.
Mother of the Messias.
Mother of him who was the Desire of all Nations.
Mother of the Prince of Peace.
Mother of the King of Heaven.
Mother of our Creator.
Mother and Virgin.
Mirror of Humility and Obedience.
Mirror of Wisdom and Devotion.
Mirror of Modesty and Chastity.
Mother of Sweetness and Resignation.
Mirror of Sanctity.
Mirror of all Virtues.
The most illustrious Light in the Church,
wearing over all her beauties the veil of Humility
to shine the more resplendently in thy Eternal Glory …
And yet this Holy Virgin-Mother styled herself but the handmaid of the Lord, and falls down with all the Glorious Hosts of angels, and with the armies of Saints, at the foot of Thy Throne, to worship and Glorify Thee for ever and ever.
St Mary’s Church in Credenhill, Herefordshire, where Traherne was priest and rector.
Festina Lente 