Catholic-Animals
THE ARK
A Publication of
THE CATHOLIC STUDY CIRCLE
FOR ANIMAL WELFARE

Poetry from the Ark, No 186

The School of Compassion
By Robert Murray SJ

Clare, do you remember the child who asked me
to bless the corner where you'd buried your mouse?
And I who had unlearned the logic of childhood
gave you cold answer of book-theology:
'mice have no need of grace or blessing,
but only humans who choose evil and good'.
But now I have learned in the school of compassion
I did not pass over the yearling squirrel
lying cold and stiff in the Wealden lane,
but lifted him gently and reverently laid him
cradled by roots of a wayside oak,
briefly his playground and now his long home.
Over his body, torn head to still tail,
I traced the sign of the world's mending
and said 'little brother, more innocent than I,
remember me in the peaceable kingdom'.

By Robert Murray SJ

Return to The Ark No. 186

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