The Beautiful hands of a Priest

By RH

      Recently we were at a Mass with Anointing of the Sick and it struck me as I was being anointed that there is a poem about the wonderful acts that a priest can perform. I don’t know who wrote it. We hear complaining about so many things - the decisions priests make, about how they live, about their schedule, etc. We need to look beyond all that and see the wonder of the gift God gave us when He gave us -

The Beautiful Hands of a Priest

We need them in life’s early morning,

We need them again at its close;

We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,

We seek it while tasting life’s woes.

When we come to this world we are sinful,

The greatest as well as the least.

And the hands that make us pure as angels

Are the beautiful hands of a priest.

At the altar each day we behold them,

And the hands of a king on his throne

Are not equal to them in their greatness

Their dignity stands alone.

For there in the stillness of morning

Ere the sun has emerged from the east,

There God rests between the pure fingers

Of the beautiful hands of a priest.

When we are tempted and wander

To pathways of shame and sin

‘Tis the hand of a priest that absolves us.

Not once but again and again.

And when we are taking life’s partner

Other hands may prepare us a feast

But the hands that will bless and unite us,

Are the beautiful hands of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,

For the Host which their fingers caress,

What can a poor sinner do better

Then to ask Him who chose them to bless.

When the death dews on our lids are falling,

May our courage and strength be increased

By seeing raised o’er us in blessing

The beautiful hands of a priest.