IN DARK HOUR

By: Seumus MacManus

(I believe every traditional Catholic has felt, at least at some moment in their life, a certain loneliness and battle weariness in fighting the good fight while the majority of the world seems to be against us.  I quote this poem for you.  Be strong, have courage, and persevere unto the end!)


I turn my steps where the Lonely Road
Winds far as the eye can see,
And I bend my back for the burden sore
That God has reached down to me.

I have said farewell to the sun-kissed plains,

To the joy I gave goodbye;

Now the bleak wide wastes of the world are mine,

And the winds that wail in the sky.

No bright flower blooms, no sweet bird calls,

Nor hermit ever abode,

Not a green thing lifts one lowly leaf,

O God, on the Lonely Road!

The thick dank mists come stealing down,

And press me on every side.

With never a voice to cheer me on,

And never a hand to guide.

I shall cry in my need for a Voice and Hand,

And the solace of love-wet-eyes-

And an icy clutch will close on the heart,

When Echo, the mocker, replies.

I know my good soul will fail me not,

When Forms from the Dark round me creep,

And whisper ‘twere sweet to journey no more,

But lay down the burden and sleep.

(Look onward and up, O Heart of my Heart,

Where the road strikes the skies afar!

To cheer you, and guide, thro’ your darkest hour,

Behold yon beckoning Star!)

I set my face to the grey wild wastes,

I bend my back to the load-

Dear God be kind with the heart-sick child

Who steps on the Lonely Road.