Collect

Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity

O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal; grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Sunday, September 30, 2018

A Wicked Priest

The President [of a witches’ Sabbath] was occasionally the local leader, but usually he was more; and if he were not more, yet he was felt as more … He was called the Devil; he was adored as the Devil; and, metaphysically, he may have been the Devil. —Charles Williams, Witchcraft

Father John has a generous bent:
his tipping is thirty percent;
he smiles at waiters
in cassock and gaiters,
showing teeth that are white and unshent.


Father John has a heart and a mind
for the needs of the lame and the blind.
When his eloquent voice
stirs the heart to a choice,
it is ever to service mankind.


Father John is a scholarly man:
all his sermons are preached to a plan,
to excite true devotion
and harness emotion
and save any soul that he can.


Father John is austerely correct
to discountenance schism and sect,
to adhere to the GIRM
in each rubric and term,
and the name of the Church to protect.


Father John has a most modest air.
He submits to his bishop with care,
And to laity too
When their judgment is true.
To his purity, none can compare.


Father John says the loveliest Mass:
his reverence none can surpass;
and when he confects,
his reflection he checks
in the chalice as if in a glass.

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