written in honor of a friend of the author’s who has been a missionary in Brazil for over fifty years.
“And Melchizedek, king of Salem,
brought forth bread and wine, and
he was the priest of the Most High
God.” — Genesis 14:18
In Sao Paulo where his mission stands,
he blesses all the poor with holy hands.
We come as family to pray and praise
in rites and hymns that joyful hearts will raise.
Each priest a Fisher King, a wounded healer,
saintly, worldly, in the spirit slain,
a keeper of the Word and truth-revealer,
whose life is hid in God, a sermon plain
to see, who helps us heal our hearts so broken,
speak for justice in a still. small voice
that thundered, as all walls collapsed — a token
of our Call, with Love our task and choice.
From hands to head, and hands to head, the ages
are conveyed within our solemn feast —
the ordinary sacred through the stages
he had journeyed here to be our priest.
The world is what the soul in stillness hears —
our eyes – once blind – have opened now with tears.
But blessed with grace, within, around, above,
we see what brought him to this place is Love.
Royal Rhodes is a retired educator. He lives in a small village in rural Ohio. His poems have appeared in: Spirit Fire Review, Foreshadow Magazine, Amethyst, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, The Montreal Review, and elsewhere.