Explore "The Lord's Prayer" by Alice Meynell on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Audemus dicere 'Pater Noster." CANON OF THE MASS.
There is a bolder way,
There is a wilder enterprise than this
All-human iteration day by day.
Courage, mankind! Restore Him what is His.
Out of His mouth were given
These phrases. O replace them whence they came.
He, only, knows our inconceivable "Heaven," / Our hidden "Father," and the unspoken "Name";
Our "trespasses," our "bread," / The "will" inexorable yet implored; / The miracle-words that are and are not said, / Charged with the unknown purpose of their Lord.
"Forgive," "give," "lead us not" -- / Speak them by Him, O man the unaware, / Speak by that dear tongue, though thou know not what, / Shuddering through the paradox of prayer.