I wish every Roman Catholic would fully appreciate what a wonderful blessing it is to have so many fine Episcopalians making that choice these days. And what a miracle it is -- a quiet one, but a miracle nonetheless! Remember, fellow Catholics, one of the biggest hurdles they face is the doctrinal and aesthetic mess we have made of the Church here in the United States. Yet they come over anyway. Can anyone doubt that only the Holy Spirit could work such a wonder?
BB, and the many others like him, will become a major force in bringing beauty in language and the arts back into Catholicism here. You just watch. And pray. For us, and for him.
- SAY not the struggle naught availeth,
- The labor and the wounds are vain,
- The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
- And as things have been they remain.
- If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
- It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
- Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
- And, but for you, possess the field.
- For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
- Seem here, no painful inch to gain,
- Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
- Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
- And not by eastern windows only,
- When daylight comes, comes in the light,
- In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
- But westward, look, the land is bright.
- -- Arthur Hugh Clough
