General (Vol. 1)
Learning
- Lord, what You came to teach in peace
I sometimes have betrayed
By fashioning a weapon
From the ploughshare that You made:
Just as the Pharisees set out
To murder You within The Law,
I have misused my learned powers
To shame and wound, not to restore.
- Too prone to showing off my gift
Of surface eloquence,
Too quick through brutal argument
To ridicule a meek defence:
May I recall when I desire
To satisfy this cruel urge
That Pilate's learning signified
The mutilation of the Scourge.
- Drawn easily to decorate
And lacquer what I should revere,
Lured often to exaggerate
Far beyond what I hold sincere:
When I am urged to fabricate
A tapestry of sneer and scorns,
May I recall Veronica's
Dread imprint of the crown of thorns.
- Tempted to exercise my wit,
To mesmerise and coruscate
Where wisdom should inform my quest
To understand and penetrate:
When I am thoughtless with my words
And wound a stranger through mischance,
May I recall that mindless thrust
Which pierced My Saviour with a lance.
- Father, direct our learning powers
To love, to honour and obey
And, through Your Son's obedience,
To watch, to minister and pray:
And may the Spirit focus all
Our efforts on the good and true,
Filled with the sacred knowledge that
All of our powers come from You.