‘New England’s Sabbath Rest’

 

How you have longed all these years for someone

To lead you to the Promised Land, Yankee man –

Bradford and Mather;

Edwards and Emerson;

Whitman and Eddy.

But the non-Orthodox cannot know

The right road to the blessèd end:

Forty times forty years in the wilderness,

But your vain wandering is renamed Progress,

And it is ordained that it shall never end.

The process of Becoming is now

The whole of a man’s life and duty.

To the surprise and demise of your pride,

You must look not far into the future,

But deep into your past, to enter

Into your much sought-for Sabbath rest,

Back to the days of a holy king,

Sigebert, and a holy bishop,

Felix, who gave your forefolk the East Angles

A new Father, God Almighty, Maker

Of heaven and earth, and a new Mother,

The Orthodox Church, the Body of Christ,

The Son of God, penetrated thoroughly

By the deifying energies

Of the Holy Ghost.

 

                                                In the waters

Of Baptism and the oil of Chrismation,

The evils that torment your thoughts by day

And haunt your dreams at night – the fear of death,

The guilt of sin – will be utterly crushed.

In the bosom of the Church, you will find

Release from cares.  Then your true journey

Of progress and transformation will begin –

The unending ascent into the Infinite God,

A motion that is still and stable,

A rest that is dynamic action.

***

To read more about Sts Felix and Sigebert, head to this page:

https://orthochristian.com/111426.html

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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!