  “Peace be to you!”—The door is closed. “Peace be to you!”—Only His Wounds lie wide, His Wounds in hands, and side. And feet, His Wounds exposed. And I rejoice At His still hands and at the voice Of the Wounds calling through twilight; For here the day is almost night, In its severe and curtained dark.... But I rejoice to hark What on His priest He whispers low, Breathing the breath of power through day’s eclipse, A sigh on all the place As of creation on the waters’ face: “Receive the Holy Spirit! All the sins You shall remit, remitted are, And those you shall retain, they are retained.” Listen! The empery this chamber wins! A Law moves here as peaceful as a star Moves on the circle of its sway ordained. Here let me kneel, and every struggle cease! Here the dark Wounds bleed over me in peace: Here God hath come to bless me at nightfall, With words of consolation that appal, For I had left Him, as the gathered few Of His disciples He passed, darkling, through: And yet He came to them as comes a dew.... O bounty of such stillness!—“Peace to you!” |
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