Huronia

By John D. O'Brien, S.J.

Mosaic by Fr. Marko Rupnik, S.J., Canadian Martyrs Parish, Rome

You called, and we replied, and to our earthly comforts died,
To go and live with them.

You beckoned and we came, to live among the poor and lame.
In land of plenty, unrefined.

We led them down into the depths, of love, by short and simple steps;
They acquiesced.

You laboured deep within the earth, of hearts, to give that second birth
— And sprouted forth.

Then darkness fell and you were gone, and never-more did rise the dawn
Of joy across the land.

We lived with fear and soon did come, the menace of the southern drum;
It broke us down.

We fled the wrath of hate untamed, and clung to your embrace renamed
Inscrutable.

But when we learned your will again, inflamed for love we soon became,
And sought our foe.

He cut us down and in our fall, we heard the sweet, enduring call:
To die, and thus to live.

So let our blood spilt on this land, add to the waters near at hand,
Of grace, outpoured.