I Love My Parish

St. Mary's Franklin, MA

Let me count the ways I love you.
I love your depth and breadth and height
my soul can reach, with palpable feeling:
for the ends of Being and ideal Grace,
for your namesake Mary, Immaculate,
for the smell of incense ever there,
for the taste of the Most Precious Blood,
for the sun-light thru the stained glass,
for the golden Baptismal font,
for the kiss of peace from a friend,
for the same worship of my childhood's faith.
I love you freely, as men strive for right;
I love you purely, as our praises touch your arches.
I love your incarnational God and faith.
I love your people who worship there;
I love your transubstantiation, my God.
I love you with a love I feel in communion
with saints -- I love you with my breath,
smiles, tears, of all my life! --and, if God
wills-my funeral Mass, be my place in death.

h/t with apology to Elizabeth Barrett Browning