A hymn to the Virgin Mary (HL, 2, pp 280-3). The author hails her as the source of life, who strengthens our faith in the anguish of death. He asks that he may be comforted by reflecting upon the delights afforded by her. He hails her as one consecrated to God who was, by a dispensation granted before her birth, incapable of sin. First in rank of the stars, the light of her birth brought an end to the errors of the world; her virginity and her conduct introduced a new way of life. She was a vessel of such purity that she brought forth the king of glory from above, accepting from Gabriel a message unheard-of before or since. Guarding her chastity, she did not fully accept his message until she was certain of it; then, a chaste flower infused with heavenly dew, she conceived a son. Chaste like the Shunamite woman (1 Kings, 1:1-4), putting her faith in unheard-of things, she was filled with the light of God; she herself was the light ...