¶THE LORD’S PRAYER
Reading edition
“Audemus dicere ‘Pater Noster.’” Canon of the Mass.
There is a bolder way,
There is a wilder enterprise than this
All-human iteration day by day.
Courage, mankind! Restore Him what is His.
Out of His mouth were given
These phrases. Oh replace them whence they came—
The noun, the verb: the inconceivable “Heaven,”
The incomprehensible “Father,” & the “Name”;
The “trespasses,” the “bread,”
The inexorable “will” and yet implored;
The miracle-words that are and are not said,
Charged with the unknown purpose of their Lord.
“Forgive,” “give,” “lead us not”—
Speak them in Him, O man the unaware,
Speak by that dear tongue, though thou know not what,
Shuddering through the paradox of prayer.
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