Thursday, April 10, 2003

On Her First Holy Communion

(Written about a year after the Letters Home came to an end, circa 1991)

To Elizabeth, on her 1st Holy Communion


Can God come down to a little child?
Suffer them to come, He said,
Jealous of souls yet undefiled,
As one on earth both born and bred.

Among us here He laughed and played,
With Joseph worked, for Lazarus wept;
In our cities He preached and prayed
And in our desert night He slept,

The chosen gathered round His fire,
On guard that none disturb this rest,
Prisoners of a world made higher
Than home to scorpion and viper's nest.

Here, by day, they flocked in droves -
Suffer them to come, He said,
Then blessed the fishes and the loaves,
As He would the wine and bread.

If God must rest, so must men
Who, in the garden at Gethsamane,
Closed weary eyes upon a friend
And slumbered through His agony.

Night brought down the Prince's soldiers -
Suffer them to come, He said -
The chosen hid among the boulders,
Among the trees till all were fled,
The trees of earth where He was born -
Suffer it so to be, He said -
Upon a tree His limbs were torn,
Upon the earth He bled.

O Maker of a million, million worlds
(Like grains of sand so much the same
Save one, for where the earth was hurled
Life was given, and God a name),

Jesus, Lover of hidden places,
Here in a child's heart find room,
As once a woman full of graces
Bid you dwell within her womb.

Exalter of the humbler things -
Oil and water, bread and wine -
Help a child to spread her wings,
Remembering that she once was mine.

Remember her mother and I have prayed
She be of those who attend your voice,
The chosen gathered round your fire;
Now this is her day, and You have made
A prisoner to a world much higher.

We are glad and rejoice.


____________________

Amen, Elizabeth. Love, Daddy
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Posted, April 10, 2003




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