Thou didst conceive, Princess most bright of sheen,
     Jesus the Lord, that hath no end nor mean,
     Almighty that, departing heaven’s demesne
       To succour us, put on our frailty,
     Offering to death his sweet of youth and green: 
     Such as he is, our Lord he is, I ween: 
       In this belief I will to live and die.

PART TWO

CHAPTER XIII

CANA I

     And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee;
     and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus was called,
     and his disciples, to the marriage.

     S. John II, 1.

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that we thy servants may enjoy constant health of body and mind, and by the glorious intercession of blessed Mary, ever a virgin, be delivered from all temporal afflictions, and come to those joys that are eternal.  Through.

Having received, O Lord, what is to advance our salvation; grant we may always be protected by the patronage of blessed Mary, ever a virgin, in whose honor we have offered this sacrifice to thy majesty.  Through.

     Old Catholic.

“There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.”  To S. John Blessed Mary is ever the “mother of Jesus.”  He never calls her by her name in any mention of her.  Jesus who loved him and whom he loved and loves always with consuming passion, held the foreground of his consciousness; all other persons are known through their relation to Him.  As he is writing his Gospel-story toward the end of his life, the Blessed Virgin has long been gone to join her Son in the place of perfect love.  We cannot conceive of her living long on earth after His Ascension.  Her “conversation” would in a special way be “in heaven.”  Whatever the time she remained here awaiting the will of God for her, we may be sure that the days she spent under the protection of S. John were wonderful days for him, wherein their communing would have been the continual lifting of their hearts and souls to Him, Child and Friend, who is also God enthroned at the Right Hand of the Father.  It is not unlikely that the marvellous spiritual maturity of which we are conscious in the writings of S. John was aided in its unfolding by the intimacy of his relations with S. Mary.  But always she remained to him what she was because of what Jesus was; she remained to the end “the mother of Jesus.”

Here at the marriage of Cana the way in which she is mentioned suggests that she was staying in the house where the marriage was celebrated:  she was simply there; Jesus and the disciples were called, invited, to the wedding.  Some relationship, it has been suggested, between S. Mary and the bride or groom led to her presence in the house.  That however is mere conjecture.  The marriage in any