Lawrence Hall, HSG
To God, Who Still Gives Joy to Our Youth
Introibo ad altare Dei
Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutam
meum
Missals calendaring the liturgical
year
Mantillas in reverent rows marked out
by children
Children as rosary beads sorting out
the Aves
And men in this-is-choking-me suits
and ties
Candles in colored glass in reverent
rows
Decades of prayers, centuries
incensed with prayers
Corinthian columns in reverent rows
of awe
Or perhaps the humble Doric,
upholding Heaven
Fiddleback chasubles in liturgical
colors
Sequenced by seasons in prismatic reverent
rows
Sewn long ago by loving reverent
hands
Each stitch enriched with a Latin
prayer
Fidgety altar boys in their Sunday
shoes
The processional cross their
grandfathers knew
Nonnas, Nanas, MeeMaws in reverent
rows
The occasional bead-bang of a rosary
against a pew
The occasional knee-pinch to a
squirming child
Latin responses in sequenced reverent
rows
Latin, which later we were told we didn’t
understand
Quia putabant nos stulti essemus
And on the Altar the eternal
Sacrifice
Which no tyranny can ever take away
Sed fuit, est, erit
