Hildegard of Bingen's Hymn, "About the Blessed Virgin Mary"

During our Evening Prayers last night as we began our commemoration of the Annunciation of our Lord, my wife June read this beautiful hymn, written by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179); it so wonderfully announces what happened at the Annunciation (and, of course, the Incarnation) that we thought you might like to sing it (however, you might):

Greetings, noble, glorious and chaste beloved.

You image of purity,

You ground of sanctity,

Pleasing to God.

Certainly a heavenly infusion

Pour into you,

Because the highest Word

In you took on flesh.

You are the radiant white lily

Whom God perceived

Prior to all creation.

You the most beautiful and loveliest;

God so delighted in you that he pressed within you

The passionate embrace of his own heat,

So that his own son was suckled by you.

Truly has your body contained joy,

Since without you every heavenly harmony sounded,

Because, Virgin, you carried the son of God,

When your own purity became illuminated in God.

Your womb contained joy

Just as the grass was infused with

Greenness, when the dew sank into it;

Therefore Mother everything joyful has been

Created through you.

Now let the whole Church, dawning rose-red, break the day in joy

And sound in harmony because of the loveliest Virgin

And most praiseworthy Mary, Mother of God. Amen.

Our prayerbook cites Medieval Women's Visionary Literature by E. A. Petroff (Oxford UP, 1986) as the source.

Image source: Heather Williams Durka, Icons and Sacred Images.