O Magnum Mysterium

12/26/01

O great and holy mystery

Hold us ever close

Strengthen our fidelity

Make bloom the mystic rose.

Word of our desiring,

Voice of unknown spheres

Music we were born to sing

Fill our song-starved ears.

In the choral evening's hymn,

At daybreak's symphony

When all the stars Thy splendour limn

In moon-touched harmony

Help us pen immortal odes

Upon the slate of space,

Meet Thee on untrodden roads

And hold Thy perfect face

An icon in our failing hearts

And frail mortality.

Awake before the form departs

The Sleeping Deity.