Daughter of thy Son

"Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,

Humble and high beyond all other creature,

The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,

Thou are the one who such nobility 

To human nature gave, that its Creator 

Did not disdain to make himself its creature.

Within thy womb rekindled was the love,

By heat of which in the eternal peace

After such wise this flower has germinated.

Here unto us thou art a noonday torch

Of charity, and below there among mortals

Thou are the living fountain-head of hope.

Lady, thou are so great, and so prevailing,

That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee,

His aspirations without wings would fly."

                                           -Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Paradiso Canto XXXIII, as translated by Henry W. Longfellow