Ballade to Our Lady of Częstochowa
by HILAIRE BELLOC
I
Lady and Queen and Mystery manifold
And very Regent of the untroubled sky,
Whom in a dream St. Hilda did behold
And heard a Woodland music passing by:
You shall receive me when the clouds are high
With evening and the sheep attain the fold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.
II
Steep are the seas and savaging and cold
In broken waters terrible to try;
And vast against the winter night the wold,
And harbourless for any sail to lie.
But you shall lead me to the lights,
and I Shall hymn you in a harbour story told.
This is the Faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.
III
Help of the half-defeated, House of gold,
Shrine of the Sword, and Tower of Ivory;
Splendour apart, supreme and aureoled,
The Battler's vision and the World's reply,
You shall restore me, O my last Ally,
To vengeance and the glories of the bold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.
Envoi
Prince of the degradations, bought and sold,
These verses, written in your crumbling sty,
Proclaim the Faith that I have held and hold
Lady and Queen and Mystery manifold
And very Regent of the untroubled sky,
Whom in a dream St. Hilda did behold
And heard a Woodland music passing by:
You shall receive me when the clouds are high
With evening and the sheep attain the fold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.
II
Steep are the seas and savaging and cold
In broken waters terrible to try;
And vast against the winter night the wold,
And harbourless for any sail to lie.
But you shall lead me to the lights,
and I Shall hymn you in a harbour story told.
This is the Faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.
III
Help of the half-defeated, House of gold,
Shrine of the Sword, and Tower of Ivory;
Splendour apart, supreme and aureoled,
The Battler's vision and the World's reply,
You shall restore me, O my last Ally,
To vengeance and the glories of the bold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.
Envoi
Prince of the degradations, bought and sold,
These verses, written in your crumbling sty,
Proclaim the Faith that I have held and hold
The Papal Legate venerating the image for the Celebrations of the Millenium of Polish Christianity in 1966.
The Empty Throne - a wound in the heart of the Polish people. Pope Paul VI was not allowed to attend by the Communist authorities. Communism which the Second Vatican Council had just failed to condemn.
The entire Episcopate of Poland in the Crypt of the Kings where the future Pope John Paul II said his first Mass. I doubt if they would have been as reticent as their modern successors in publically and officially proclaiming Christ the King of Poland, if they had had the chance.
Archbishops with relics of St Adalbert, Proto-Martyr of Poland, St Stanislaus, St Hyacinth, Apostle of the North and among the first Dominicans clothed by St Dominic, St John Cantius and other saints of Poland, at whose intercession and through the power of the Rosary, Communism, the devil's own work was conquered in their land.
.jpeg)
Comments