TABERNACLE: A Poem

TABERNACLE: A Poem 2022-11-30T01:08:11-05:00

Happy Holy Thursday and April Fools Day

According to popular tradition, one of the most likely origins of April Fools’ Day is the result of the Western world switching from the Julian calendar to the Christian Gregorian calendar in the 1500s. (The Gregorian calendar was named after Pope Gregory XIII, who instituted it in 1582.)

According to historians, the practical and traditional confusion created by the switch is highly probable to be the cause of the April Fools tradition. On the first day of the April, if you accidentally celebrated New Years Day, or if someone caught you off guard and convinced you that you had forgotten to celebrate New Years, you would be dubbed an “April Fool.”
Ashley Olik, The Legendary Catholic Origin of April Fools’ Day (March 29, 2019)

TABERNACLE

I wonder if I am the only one who ever saw
The dent upon the Tabernacle door.
It is not a great miracle or any such thing
Just something I noticed while praying one spring.

But why ought I be taken by a slight dent in the box
Or a bit of discolored metal, some slightly faded marks?
For what ought to impress me more
It’s what is behind the Tabernacle’s dented door.

It is not your basic bread or dough
Of this fact I’m sure you know.
It is someone who I adore.
And I’ve come to visit Him again. What for?

For He is the joy of my soul, my heart
And He loved me from the very start.
He holds me tight when I am sad,
And mercifully forgives me when I’ve done bad.

He suffered so much for love of me
And met His death upon a tree.
What is it that I desire,
As I write these words and my pen runs drier?


I want to love Him more and more,
This Bread my God behind the door.
I think on His wounds where He was beat.
They pierced His head, nailed hands and feet.

And how I wonder as I write again
Can I sooth His wounds and ease his Pain?
Is it by making some sacrifice?
Or constantly trying to overcome vice?

Is it by Holy Communion and prayer?
And by visiting my Love here?
Is it by truly loving others and by charity?
My God, that I can best serve thee.

Ought I strive for holy perfection?
And meditate on His death and resurrection?
My God may I desire only your will,
And in difficulties preserve still.

For my lovely Jesus in front of me
How I desire to give my life to thee!
I want to help You carry Your heavy cross.
To stray from Your arms what a horrid loss!
You know me well, You know I am weak
And don’t do well these things I speak.
I’ve come to keep You company
And got distracted by a silly dent I see.

But the dent is not so bad
For it inspired the reflection I just had.
This poem is a bit jumbled with poor direction
As it comes from me far from perfection.

It speaks of a Perfect One
Who we will spend forever with once life is done.
So it has some value I suppose,
But only because Jesus died and rose.

SEE ALSO  Flea: A Poem

Corpus Christi Quartet of Poems

Five Meditations For Holy Week


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