‘The Lord promised that He would dwell in a cloud.’

Symbol of star or lily of snows,

Rainbow or root or vine or fruit-filled tree:

These images the Immaculate to me

Less than a cloud, a little light cloud rising

From Orient waters cleft by prophecy.

And as the Virgin in a most surprising

Maternity bore God and our doomed race,

I who bear God in mysteries of grace

Beseech her: Cloud, encompass God and me.

Nothing defiled can touch the cloud of Mary.

God as a child willed to be safe in her,

And the Divine Indweller sets his throne

Deep in a cloud in me, His sanctuary,

I pray, oh, wrap me, Cloud, light Cloud of Carmel

Within whose purity my vows were sown

To lift their secrecies to God alone.

Say to my soul, the timorous and small

House of a presence, that it cannot see

Any frightened acre of Deity:

I have enclosed thee all.

Thou art in softness of a summer wind lull.

O hut of God, hush thine anxiety.

Enfolded in this motherhood of mine

All that is beautiful and all divine

Is safe in thee.