AVE ECCLESIA.
(By a Convert.)
Time-hallowed Church, whoso truth divine Endures unchanged from age to age, What joy to feel that we are thine, Nor lost our priceless heritage!
How sweet now to devoutly kneel Where oft our feet so lightly trod, And in her lamp-lit shrines to feel The presence of the Son of God !
To hear her immemorial prayers, Unaltered, in that ancient tongue, Whoso sense each kneeling suppliant shares, Though softly read or grandly sung!
To find in Christian art a spell That only those who love her know New tenderness in Raphael, Now strength in Michael Angelo !
New splendor in those works sublime Which bear Christ's emblem towards the sky, And lift the soul from tilings of time To visions of eternity!
What joy, amid the irised light That floods those miracles in stone.
To walk by faith as well as sight, The faith those builders made their own!
As ships which angry billows toss Seek shelter from the stormy blast, So 'neath the standard of the Cross We, too, have reached the port at last. Dear Mother Church, with grateful tears Wo find the blessed fold of Rome, Sad from the long past's wasted years, But thankful to have reached our home. —J. L. Stoddard.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZT19200205.2.93.1
Bibliographic details
New Zealand Tablet, 5 February 1920, Page 45
Word Count
210AVE ECCLESIA. New Zealand Tablet, 5 February 1920, Page 45
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