Remember

There at the end of the lane

I see a stranger

Hooded in darkness

A silhouette

still and silent

cast among birch trees

Silvered in the moonlight

A warrior steeped

In memory

Come to recall

A time of conflict

Today of all days

Among the blood

Of the fallen

He bears no poppy

Just another sword.

Strange today and yesterday to hear upon the lips of establishment clergy, bishops  even:

To give and not to count the cost

To fight and not to heed the wounds

To labour and to seek for no reward

Save that we do thy holy will.

Prayer of St Ignatius Loyola founder of the Jesuits. Himself a soldier and Knight of Basque origin wounded at the battle of Pamplona and then a conversion and much prayer. Prayed in a cave in Manresa, now a singularly unlovely town in northern Spain,and eventually to Rome!

JL Remembrance  Sunday 13 Nov 2011