‘Ireland’

 

A peerless crystal city,

Transparent to Ireland’s

Natural beauty, gleaming

Green and blue; sub-civitas

Of Greater Jerusalem;

Rich colony of Christendom

Shining in the splendor

Of Holiness – This they fashioned

With their sacred hands:

Kevin of far-famed Glendalough,

Eoghan of Kilnamanach,

Teacher of belovèd Kevin,

Kieran of Clonmacnoise,

Who reposed so young,

And the entire luminous choir

Of the Irish saints.

 

For generations

That city was ablaze

With the Glory of the Gospel,

And shining souls

From Irish shores

Spread that Light to many

Other lands.

 

                        But after scores

Of years, other men, some unknowing

And unwise, others full of guile

And cunning, arose in Erin.

The saints they banished

To caverns underground

And ruled in their name

But not in their spirit:

Stern, angry, rigid, and perverse.

With grimy hands

And blackened hearts,

They remade the Irish Church,

Happy and beautiful

In Christ and His saints,

In their own image:

Dark, morose, opaque.

 

The Holy Spirit,

Radiant Center

Of that holy place,

Has fled in dismay,

Leaving only the appearance

Of life, but not the thing itself.

And now a great collapse

Has laid bare the depth

Of wickedness and depravity

For all to see.

 

But amidst this wreckage

Hope arises once again.

From their exile

The saints have been released.

Free once more to move

Among the people,

They begin to heal

The devastated souls

Of their fellow Gaels.

 

Yet trust is small,

And the task is great.

But these are more

Than mortal men:

They are God-bearers,

Breathing Grace and Love.

To be in their presence

Is to be with God,

To stand in Heaven.

And there all things

Are possible:

Wild animals become tame,

The leaves of the trees sing songs,

Angels become visible,

Agèd birds become young,

Willows bear apples,

Blind eyes receive sight.

 

With the help of the saints

The scars of the Irish,

Bitter and betrayed,

Will fade.  And the people,

Reunited with their saints,

After their long catastrophe,

Will renew their land in beauty.

***

For lives of some Irish saints:

St Kevin

https://orthochristian.com/80048.html

St Kieran

https://orthochristian.com/73745.html

More –

http://oodegr.com/english/istorika/britain/history_irish_church.htm

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!