Adore Te Devote by Thomas Lynch

Father Kenny taught me Latin hymns.

And, lost for words, I'd often chant Gregorian:

Adoro te devote, latens Dietas___

a second tongue, more humbly to adore them in,

those hidden deities: the bodies of women,

the bodies of men, their sufferings and passions,

the sacred mysteries of life and death

by which our sight and touch and taste are all deceived.

By hearing only safely we believe.

And so I listened and am still listening.

I've heard the prayers said over open graves

and heard the pleas of birth and lovemaking.

"O God! O God!" we always seem to say.

And God, God help us, answers "Wait and see."

Given to me by my friend Bruce.