Classic Poem

He repaired to the temple to make sacrifice:
For he loved God so that he had to give to him …

And he had but one thing to give that was precious to him,
The sword of his Mother.

“And this will I give,” he said, “though the blood of my heart goes with it.”

He came to the image in the inmost shrine,
And he loved the image …

He knelt and prayed to it …
“Father,” he prayed, “thy love enfolds me,
I am a child in thine arms:
Thou art with me day and night,
And where I go, thou followest,
And when I need, thou art there …
O for a sign, reach down, O Lord,
Reach down and take thy child in thine arms.”

And he waited for the miracle