This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by Gerard Garrigan, O.S.B.

I a Man of Unclean Lips

I a man
Of unclean lips
Whose human hands
Are less clean still
Do dare to hold you
Heavenward
And utter words
No mere mortal
Had ever dared
To think much less
To speak
This is my body
This my blood
Do this in my
Remembrance
And in that moment
Of mystery sweet
And so so terrible
May God have mercy
On my soul


Gerard Garrigan, O.S.B. is a monk of Saint Louis Abbey. More of his poetry is available free of charge by e-mailing him at: frgerard@priory.org.

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