Pius the Tenth
by VP
Posted on Tuesday August 21, 2018 at 09:47AM in Poetry
“Instaurare omnia in Christo” (Eph. I. 10)
by H. R.S.
Lo, God from silent city on the seas
Had snatched earth’s simplest man and held him, pale
And dazed, above the glory of the hills;
Then pierced his trembling soul with one command:
“Stretch out thine arm. Restore all things in Christ.”
“Not I, O Lord? Be pitiful and spare!”
“I shall not spare. For I have chosen thee,
Such as thou art, to go before My face
And wage My battle…. As I call a bird
From out the east, so from afar I call
The man of My own will. For I Myself
Have spoke. Yea, and I shall bring it there
To pass…. I give salvation unto Sion…
Stand dauntless forth.” (Isaias XLVI)
He shuddered, and obeyed.
That heart, whence tenderness flowed out in streams,
Put on the breast-plate of His justice then
And met, invincible, the fiery dart.
The field is won…. And with the night there falls
A silence on the camp….
He hath restored
To man Christ’s Godhead in its plenitude,
And Christ in Living Bread to cleansed lips
For daily food. He hath restored to Christ
The little ones whose breasts are Bethanies,
Where Christ is Guest and Host, and it is morn.
To Liturgy restored its primal chant,
Majestic voice of praise.
The nations crash;
War wraps its shroud the world around… God Folds
His saint in peace. Restorer is restored
To Christ, in Whom all things are made anew.
Source: New Catholic World, Vol. 100, Paulist Fathers, 1915
