STRONGHOLD
Were
am I safe, Lord?
What remote fortress, castle keep or island bulwark
is my safe haven against the armies of Satan?
Where is my security, God, except in Your good house?
Where
else have I protection against hell's deadly lightning
bolts of temptation and whorish hurricanes
of hellfire? Is any shimmering metropolis
or airy mountain top preferable to the ivory
City of God? Is any fortress stronger
than the castle of my Lord? No,
none! None!
I
could build a house of hardest granite
on a far, far mountain precipice
and band it round with ramparts and turrets.
I
could tunnel deep into the rocky earth
and carve out a dank subterranean cave.
I could commandeer a sailing ship,
bypassing an endless rosary of tempting ports,
to navigate, eternally, encircling Mother earth.
But
I know no human land or sea abode
has walls or winds or strength enough
to safely barricade my strong impatient soul
and keep me from the wiles of the Evil One.
Take
me in, then, dear God, barricade me with grace!
Be my Landlord and my Shelter.
Hold me, hold me, hold me fast, invisible to Satan
in the silence of Your secret Heart
until the day of glory when trumpets sound
and celestial stairways climb into the clouds.
Please,
dear, dearest loving Jesus,
extend Your nail-pierced bleeding hands to me.
Enfold me in divine protection
and take me to my only true eternal home,
in the Sacred Shrine of Your divine unending love.
Amen
