Mary saying ‘yes’ to God in sorrow and suffering is overwhelmingly graceful.
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman,[a] here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her
into his home.”
Around the time the work was finished, there was a complaint against Michelangelo because of the way he depicted the Virgin. She appears rather young – so young, in fact, that she could scarcely be the mother of a thirty-three-year-old son.
http://www.italianrenaissance.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Michelangelo-pieta.jpg
Accredited to italianrenaissance.org
VOCES8 sings the ‘Magnificat Primi Toni’ by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina in the VOCES8 Centre in London.
TEXT and TRANSLATION:
1. Magnificat, anima mea, Dominum My soul doth magnify the Lord
2. et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo, salutari meo. and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
3. Quia respexit humilitatem ancillæ suæ: ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes. For he hath regarded: the lowliness of his handmaiden: for behold, from henceforth: all generations shall call me blessed.
4. Quia fecit mihi magna, qui potens est, et sanctum nomen eius, For he that is mighty hath magnified me: and holy is his Name,
5. et misericordia eius a progenie in progenies timentibus eum. and his mercy is on them that fear him: throughout all generations.
6. Fecit potentiam in brachio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. He hath showed strength with his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
7. Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles; He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek;
8. esurientes implevit bonis et divites dimisit inanes. he hath filled the hungry with good things: and the rich he hath sent empty away.
9. Suscepit Israel puerum suum recordatus misericordiæ suæ, He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel,
10. sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, Abraham et semini eius in sæcula. as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, for ever.
11. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:
12. sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen. as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
from Little Gidding
TS Eliot