» 01.09.

PILGRIM EMBRACE

The world cannot give that for which the soul longs;

What it in truth and spirit needs:

But if it can it will always humble and confuse us

Until we are driven to our knees;

Where the flesh and its vain imaginings

The eternal wisdom sees

And the devil is left by himself with his pride

In the pleasure of a fire without its warmth

Alone in the dark.

The light calls to the simple pilgrim

Who knows the struggle of the heart and of the mind

To help him to realize the things that really matter

And to wait in peace and patience until love is kind;

So that what is born of sin and greed and ingratitude

Can with the dust and the dirt be left

With the dead somewhere behind:

We are all a part of the dying

Except that which the living transcends;

But human the mixture too much adulterates

And the good and the evil well blends;

So the best that we can be for each other

Is a traveller together on the same road

Through its crooks and its winds and its bends:

Friends like Christ said he called us,

Brothers and sisters,

Children of a Father, we too often forget;

Hoping to look forward with a soul fondly remembered

With little for remorse or regret.

Oh what an heavenly aspiration!

Eternally bound with God’s grace;

Keeping our eyes on our goal at the end;

Holding each other lightly

In passing embrace.