Letter to the Foundress
My sweet third
mother, pray tell me,
What holy
inspiration and Christian piety
Moved your
heart to build this nursery of men,
And receive
into your family the generations
Of boys your
generosity would lift to heights untold?
Oh, dear
Foundress, should you see from thy throne
How the
gracious Will did hold that your seed thrive,
Increase, and
bear countless fruit, countless good
To mix sweetly
with your praises of God’s glory
Our paeans and
dedications: ad majorem Dei gloriam!
Behold,
already, how many of the living stones
Of the eternal
kingdom doth bear the double crimson griffons,
How many more
shall still be added, impressed
With a love so
true, a wisdom so bright, as if
To make the
very angels squeal with delight!
See how the
noble work draws, summons, and calls
Boys from the
northern plains, down to the wastes of Jersey ,
And the whole
swath of country and city in between, from every
Nation
and every station, every problem in the world
to marshal
round in prophetic, daring discourse.
For these boys
have but one mistress: Truth,
And her holy ministers,
also learning, guide them through
The illusion of
the world to glimpse the eternal form,
Eternal Plan,
and as men for others lay the brick
Where their
brothers hath left off – and bring to life.
Yes! From this
capital of books, this fortress of
Knowledge come
legions of Christ to fight the dark
With Light, the
lies with Truth, the silence with Word,
And hate with
Love. Yes, my love, they shall their mind
Employ as sword
to fulfill the vision they hath saw.
Pray for us
then, our mother, that as we don our
Peaked helmets
and receive our spurs, and walk forth
From this
Jesuit Athens, that the Sacred Heart may with a
Drop of
Christ’s courage imbue my other brothers
And Christ’s
love make us the matches to burn the world.
And as we sow
the harvest through the Earth,
Let your gift
always be in our eye, the tree your children fed
For fifty years
before it grew and spread. For now, I know,
Sweet Jesus,
that I will return to this nest of mine,
To see new
owlets fly until the very end of time.
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