The Pierced Veil: A Call to Arms

A poem about experiencing Eucharistic Adoration on the Fourth of July during the fireworks.

Time spent before You is always transcendent:

Temporality and eternity collide,

Heaven and Earth fall into the perfect circle,

More brilliant than any setting sun,

Your wonderous majesty clothed in finest wheat.

Yet on that one enchanting night,

You used the thunder and the lights

To project upon my eyes and ears

The spiritual battle raging still.

That day in honor of war long past

Becomes the vigil of shells and cries

A sound that pierces through the skies

And, filtered within glass and stone,

Illuminates the darkness of my sight.

You are bedecked in flame and jewels,

A centerpiece to hold us tight,

While all around the world assaults,

With violence tries to pierce Your side.

As I knelt before You we were transported,

Submerged in the battle raging ever ‘round.

You never left my side - my hope, my guide -

Yet let me see the peril ranged outside.

The bombs and flares, the shouts and clashes

These signs are those of battles bloody, died.

And yet, in secret places did You share,

The incorporeal thunder of the angels’ forces.

A battle raging even now,

Yet heralded not by flags nor trumpet call.

I walk amidst the clash of armies celestial

Oft’ forgetting to raise rapier tip

Tripping instead on that uneven ground.

But in that moment You shifted back the veil,

Revealing the briefest glimpse of sights unseen.

I pray You make me ever mindful of

That battle you call everyone to lead.