"We adore you and we bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all the churches which are in the world, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world" - St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Annes' Church in Shanvaghera
And St. John the Baptist in Knock
Were where I worshiped with my family
On Sundays wearing my best frock
The parish Church of St. Patrick
In Ballyhaunis has a very fine steeple
I prayed there when I cycled to town
Its door was always open for the people
At the other end of the town
I walked from the green gate
Up a footpath to the beautiful Friary
There I lit a candle to meditate
Then I went to school in London
And on Camberwell New Road
My parish Church was the Sacred Heart
When I was fourteen years old
On a school journey to Rome
In nineteen sixty-four an audience
With Pope Paul VI in St. Peters Basilica
Was a very special experience
St. Teresas' Carmelite Church in Dublin
Was where I prayed after I would meet
With my sister Julie for lunch
Near her place of work on Grafton Street
I prayed at Westminster Cathedral
And joined 'St. Francis Rambler's Club'
On Sundays we 'rambled' in the suburbs
And ate our lunches in a pub
From Farm Street church in Grosvenor Square
I walked with my friend Agnes to Wigmore Hall
For the eleven o'clock musical recitals
Where concerts were intimate and small
My travels brought me to many Churches
The Cathedral of The Good Shepherd in Singapore
Although it was not very ornate
Was a place of refuge from the traffics' roar
In nineteen seventy-three I visited
A Church that was just four years old
Temppeliaukio Church in Helsinki
Built into the rock was a sight to behold
Driving home from Dublin with Julie
At a Church in a small town one Good Friday
We stopped to do the Stations of the Cross
Before continuing on our journey
St. Josephs' Oratory in Montreal, Quebec
Where I visited with Julie in nineteen-seventy-six
Canada's largest church has three-thousand seats
Miracles of healing is evidenced by the walking-sticks
At Christmas I crunched through the snow
To midnight Mass in a tiny Church under starlight
In Silvaplana Switzerland that was magical
There in German the choir sang 'Silent Night'
I made two visits to the Churches of Israel
In nineteen eighty-six and nineteen ninety-eight
And walked that land to witness
The beauty of what belief in God can create
My last place of worship in the city
That has St. Paul as its Patron
Was at St. Anslem's in Tooting Bec
On my way home from work I prayed there often
And in Coral Gables, Miami
In the Church of the Little Flower
Was where I was joined in matrimony
With my beloved husband Arthur
We visited St. Columba Church
In Drumcliffe County Sligo
To see the poet W.B.Yeats grave
Who died eighty-two years ago
The Heydon Chapel in Sandys, Bermuda
Was the smallest house of worship
That we visited in Two Thousand Fifteen
Accommodated just ten people for fellowship
In twenty-thirteen we traveled to
The Morse Museum in Winter Park
And prayed in the Tiffany Chapel that
Came from St.John the Divine in New York
First Baptist Church of South West Broward
And our local Bible Baptist Church
Where we attended the services
In our ongoing spiritual search
Here in Pembroke Pines, Florida
Since November nineteen ninety-five
My parish Church was St. Maximilian Kolbe
To maintain my childhood faith I strive
At St. Mark the Evangelist Church
I pray twice when I sing in the choir
At the eleven o'clock Mass on Sunday
To praise the Lord is my desire
Churches - a place to acknowledge
A superior Being from whom derives
Positive influences that enable us
Here on earth to appreciate our lives.
[February 26th 2013]
"You need to have the guidance of someone else. You cannot train yourself. I feel the same way about Christianity and about what the Church is: the church is the gym of the soul " - Sylvester Stallone.
"The language, the authority, the magnificence of the whole presentation...I don't think we have anything in our language that touches it" - Leonard Cohen said about the bible, when he was asked by Charlie Rose in 1988 interview if he has a favorite book.
This poem is in my book Polyanthum available on Amazon.com
Copyright: Pauline L. Stillman.
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