Something Lovely I Picked Up

I stumbled upon this hymn while I was praying a couple nights ago and I found it rather beautiful. It was printed for the 29th of December in Magnificat.

God's glory to the temple comes

And enters by the eastern gate

And fills the house with hidden flame

For whom the aged prophets wait.

They sing the wonder they have seen 

Though other eyes see nothing yet,

For one day this refiner's fire

Will burn where suns arise and set.

And all the nations then will see

The light that spills from Zion's height

And purifies our blinded hearts

Till sin-dimmed eyes can see aright.

The price is high: a piercing sword,

A cross that asks of us to choose

The fire that cinders selfishness-

For we are saved by what we lose.

O Mary, bear to us the flame 

As once you bore him to the place

Where Abraham laid Isaac, bound, 

And where you chose the bitter grace

To see the sword strike down your Son

That from his tomb the fire might rise

And set the universe alight

With God's own love, life's truest prize.