Pause, gaze and reflect! This youthful image! (Can it be? Is is true?)
Putrid masks shed - - squalid seas of stupor sink,
Gauzed wounds of sin now healed - - each ache and pain sold for penny scars of vices;
A free man’s posture, poise and joy,
Poisoned past with penance, tempered waist with fasting, waste trimmed, and chaste,
Plan of life to live daily, Adoration, self-oblation,
Temptation tried; live, liberated constitution,
Man, mindful of mystery - - stately, sturdy, fit;
Wise with words of wisdom, withstanding
Fads of passing fancy - - friends, stable family;
Clean, that clouded glass a ghastly image of the past,
Clean you’ve died to self - - and the self you see is Christ!
Gary Edward Geraci
“It’s now no longer I that live but Christ lives in me.” Galatians 2:20