James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
July 24Thomas à Kempis
By Richard Rogers Bowker (18481933)
T
Where throng and push passions and lusts and hate,
And enter, through this age-browned, ivied gate,
For many summers’ birds a sure retreat,
The place of perfect peace. And here, most meet
For meditation, where no idle prate
Of the world’s ways may come, rest thee and wait.
’Tis very quiet. Thus doth still Heaven entreat.
Walks one who bears the cross, who waits the crown.
Tumult is past. In those calm eyes I see
The image of the Master, Christ, alone,
And from those patient lips I hear one prayer:
“Dear Lord, dear Lord, that I may be like thee!”