PRAYER IN THE MARIAN YEAR

PRAYER IN THE MARIAN YEAR

Not all the blackness of apparent nightfalls,

nor all the evils of the coming years

could stay your spirit, flashing out its sword-play

above the fallen body of men's fears.

Honed with love to the keenest edge of courage

you dared to trust His word (the final test!)

and see an age, when numbers past the counting

would lift your name and call its music blessed.

Now once again, O Maid of rapier vision,

thrust hopeful steel against a darkening sky;

foretell the victory that your Son has promised

Who bears "The King of kings" upon his thigh.

Now slash the air and cleave our doubts asunder -

be thou our sureness, lead us to attack,

whose feeble swords are rusting in our scabbards,

whose necks are crooked with ever looking back.

Sister M Cathlin BVM

America. 10 April 1954

_______________________________________

'Lead us to attack' refers to spiritual warfare

'For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places'. Ephesians 6:12

From 'A Silence full of bells'