Editor’s Note: The following is a poem written by our brother Joseph Raymund Vivier, O.P., for Dominicana vol. 23, no. 2, on the occasion of the province’s ordinations in 1938. Please pray for the five men ordained tomorrow.
—
ON THE EVE OF ORDINATION
RAYMUND VIVIER, O.P.
No miser ever counted hoarded gold
More eagerly than I the busy years.
No fairer dreams could heaven itself unfold
Of sinner saved, of penitential tears.
How often hard the way, what bitter hours!
The soul doubt stricken, temptation plagued, a prey
To Darkness; a thing of sport for all its Powers
Till shone again the Light, till came the day.
Tomorrow I ascend the altar stair.
The sanctuary portals open wide,
Embracing arms of welcome. O happy hour
When earth and heaven meet! A thing so fair,
Angelic Choirs pause and turn aside
In wonderment at priesthood’s awful power.
✠
Photo by Dominican Province of St. Joseph
