Inspired by an afternoon spent with the Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration, in Stamullen, in Co. Meath, while attending an ordination in 2024:
To chant is but to summon what was known,
A voice intoned in cadence, slow and deep,
That draws the soul where older forms have grown--
Where memory and silence learn to keep.
The Psalms arise like tides through cloistered stone,
The hours chime soft where shadows fall and pass,
And in the hush where Word once stirred alone,
The breath of prayer still moves through air and glass.
In repetition, patterns find their place,
A swelling field where light begins to burn.
Each echoed phrase restores a vanished grace,
Each sacred sound invites the world’s return.
For what is called with love, returns with flame--
The field remembers when we speak its name.
Mari 25/05/2025