I Learned to See, When Groping Through the Night

                     'Tonight I am remorseful, and I stand
                     a shame-faced mendicant before Your door,
                     humbly surrendering a world-scarred hand,
                     to pick the crumbs that fall upon the floor.
                     Forget the day I marched out proud and cold,
                     unmindful of the sacrifice You made;
                     and unabashed, I scorned the humble fold
                     and its mute harmony.  Still unafraid,
                     my spirit fled through dark that knew no dawn.
                     Oh, bid me stay where strife dare not intrude.
                     Dissolve the past into oblivion,
                     and let me rest once more in solitude.
                     No longer will I shun Your Guiding Light;
                     I learned to see, when groping through the night.'

           (from Fervorinos From the Lips of the Master, compiled by a Religious, Pelligrini, Australia, 1940, p. 244)

           Painting:  Leighton, The King and the Beggar-Maid 

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