Means of Grace

You ask of us fair linen, and that our hands

would tremble just a little as we set

the table for the Holy Mysteries.

You ask us to hold out those hands, and wait

for bread of heaven, for mercy not our own,

and to receive what we could never grasp.

You ask of us a patience and a care

we fear to take, a trust beyond ourselves,

a holiness that only you can give.

So in the silence of the love that springs

Where least expected but where most desired,

we touch with trembling hands the holy things;

And all of life is grace, and something sings.

Originally published in Alive Now, July/August 1998