Scaling the Cliffs

Today, as Mom and I drove down the highway to the charming Gast Haus where Dad was about to give his last (before leaving for Boston) conference to our young adult group. The topic was "Words, Fists and Guns: When and How to use them", and it was a marvelous conference, based solidly on St. Thomas Aquinas with some excellent real and hypothetical examples from today's world, and a good deal of interesting talk on the virtue of vengeance.

But to return to my introduction... as we drove, I was watching the heavy grey cloud formations against the beautiful blue sky, with shafts of light falling through the gaps. And to my mind came the germ that, in the post-conference discussion, mushroomed into

Scaling the Cliffs

The thunderheads were grey above the town
Against the April blue,
Piled in a mass of shapes as soft as down,
Yet dreadful too -
Tall cliffs of silver-grey and marble-white,
With floods of fading, falling sunset light
Down-pouring through.

I stood and gazed up at the high plateau
Of cloud-stone, and the stair
Of light up which the little souls would go,
Treading the air,
Passing from prison to the holy height
Of merriment and all divine delight,
And praise and prayer.

I watched them fly and longed to follow them,
Scaling the sky;
To join them, jewels in the diadem
Of God most high.
And as I looked - though 'twas too high to see
For sure - I thought one turned and looked at me
And waved goodbye,

As if to say, "Fear not, I'll pray for thee,
So dry that tear;
As I did sigh in flames, and thou for me
Didst pray, my dear,
I'll pray that thou wilt do as God's decree
Commands, and come at last eternally
To praise him here."

--April 20, 2009

Happy Easter!

Lent is over at last, and once again, the Alleluia reigns. This translation of one of my favorite Easter hymns, the beautiful Finita Jam Sunt Proelia, is my contribution for Easter week.

FINITA JAM SUNT PROELIA

Now is the battle o'er and done,
Now is the final triumph won,
All rejoice; lift every voice,
Alleluia, alleluia!

After his death's most cruel fate,
Jesu destroyed the hellish gate,
Lutes, O laud and hands applaud,
Alleluia, alleluia!

Up he arose on the third day,
Blazing with heavenly grace's ray,
Let us play and sing alway,
Alleluia, alleluia!

Hell's gate is closed forevermore,
Thrown open is the heavenly door,
All, rejoice; lift every voice,
Alleluia, alleluia!

Christ, by thy wounds, O may we be
From sin and death forever free;
Living we will sing to thee,
Alleluia, alleluia!


I edit to add that this is actually post number 101, not the last one; who knows how the machine read this before, but apparently there were still one hundred as of April 1! Ah well. Happy Easter, again!

The 101'st post!

Wow! The St. Joseph post was a milestone (#100) and I didn't even know it till I signed in and saw it on my dashboard. What fun. So, to add to the coincidence, the second "century" of posts begins with the second decade of my life -- today I am twenty!

And if you have to know, no, I don't feel any different... :)

So what have I done in two decades? I've grown up in an awesome family, watching it grow (biennially) from two to eleven kids; I've learned a good deal (though not nearly enough) about music and know that it'll be a lifelong study that will never cease to amaze me at every turn; I've never had a boyfriend or been on a date, and I don't care; I've made many friends and (as far as I know) no enemies; I've wept a good deal and laughed a good deal more. And of course, I've grown in the Faith the whole time and learned to love God... not enough, of course, but I try.

In short, it's been an awesome twenty years and I can't wait for the next twenty. Thank God for the former and may He grant the latter!