Beauty

Funny the things you remember

They just make an impression

Stay forever

Do not go away

I remember a girl in Liverpool

I thought her beautiful

The ‘Thunderbolt’ the Italians say

And I was stunned that day

She was a novice nun

And I a novice priest

It didn’t happen

We never spoke

An instant disturbed my peace

 

Of course it was her beauty

Impressed upon my mind

Comes back to me in reverie

This morning too I find

And beauty is forever

An inner truth of life

Beauty is an essence

Despite our ugly strife

 

Jesus too is beauty

I saw it from the start

Not upon a mountain

But deep within my heart

The beauty of his teaching

The beauty of his face

The beauty of his dying

This beauty I embrace

 

There’s a little church in Moscow

I heard about today

It bears the name of beauty

So it is here to stay

‘Consolation of All Sorrows’

The title that it bears

This is beauty – mercy

God who truly cares

 

This world’s devastation

The ugliness of war

The viciousness of anger

The cruel deathly stare

All the sorrows of the world

Embraced upon the cross

Jesus Christ is beauty

His love redeems our loss

 

Brian Fahy

13 March 2022