Prayers & Devotions | Mariology

The waiting hours creep silently across the shining skies; Beneath their soft and dusky shade a deeper mystery lies: Beneath the stars of Bethlehem, lo! Other Lights arise.

by M.J. Malloy | Source:

The waiting hours creep silently across the shining skies;
Beneath their soft and dusky shade a deeper mystery lies:
Beneath the stars of Bethlehem, lo! Other Lights arise.

"Glory to God in heaven above; on earth good-will to men!"
Hark! All about the sleeping world the angels sing again.
How joyful now the Mother kneels, heaven in her happy eyes,
Under the stars on Bethlehem, beneath the open skies!



If thou hadst known, when on thy heart the Babe of Bethlehem lay,
How sharp the pang thou shouldst be called to bear one woeful day;
For all thy blessedness gone by--alas, O Mother true!
When on the cross His heart was pierced, thine own was riven too!



The heavens beneath her feet are spread, the suns die dim before;
Love hath been given to love again, and Grief hath died of its own pain:
Above the starry skies
The Mother, glorious, reigneth o'er the courts of Paradise.



The above article appeared in Catholic World volume 58 (October 1893), p. 110.