This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by Martin Briggs.
Litany Before Psychomachia
[Ed. Note: The Psychomachia (Battle of Spirits or Soul War) is a poem by the Late Antique Latin poet Prudentius (early 5th century AD). The word may be used more generally for the theme of the battle between good and evil, and the duality portrayed in the book was the first of its kind to depict the different moral realms battling within the human soul.]
From pride
which whispered Lucifer to dethrone You, and from all
ambitious vanity preceding every fall,
lead us into humility.
From avarice
whose embittered slaves live only for possession
and die impoverished by their own obsession,
lead us into charity.
From lust,
from ephemeral cravings never gratified
and sullied passion endlessly unsatisfied,
lead us into chastity.
From envy,
ingratitude, self-hatred, resentment of our brother,
displeasure of the soul that burns to be another,
lead us into kindness.
From gluttony
defend us, teach us hunger, nourish us with less;
from surfeits that abuse Your image with poisonous excess
lead us into temperance.
From wrath,
degrading strength that fails to silence love by rage,
from futile impotence of rancorous old age
lead us into patience.
From sloth
awaken us, from indolence that bleeds our neighbor,
from arrogance that scorns the sanctity of labor
lead us into diligence.
From darkness
and despair that starves the spirit fettered in its prison,
from annihilating night that drowns our failing vision,
lead us into light.
Martin Briggs is the son of an English Methodist minister, but has been exposed to and influenced by Catholic thinking and culture all his life. He began writing seriously after retiring from a career in public administration, since when his work has appeared in Areopagus, The Dawntreader and Reach Poetry. He lives with his wife in Suffolk, England.
