BREAD AND CONSCIENCE

Confect your grace sweet Spirit!
Sift the wisdom I inhale:
enter my heart, tear the veil!

Wake my idle soul to prove your
strange and marvelous works--
sacred water for feverish days,
oil of gladness to exile sorrow.

Acquit me, O Lord, in your love,
in all its merciful ways.
It is your face, O God,
that rouses me to orders.

I vow myself to your fair daughter,
consecrate me to her holy temple. 
Purge my self-love and cold perfection--
thrust me from the rancid pedestal.

Bless these hands, my lips, my eyes of faith!
Love him who binds his inconstant heart
to Bread and Conscience.

 

July 23, 2003