The Beautiful Hands of a Priest

These words are on a monolith kind of thing standing next to a gravestone in Calvary Cemetery:

"We need them in life's early morning,

we need them again at its close,

we feel their warm clasp of true friendship,

we seek them while tasting life's woes.

When we come to this world we are sinful,

the greatest as well as the least,

and the hands that makes us pure as angels,

are the beautiful hands of a priest.

At the altar each day we behold them,

and the hands of a king on his throne,

are not equal to them in their greatness,

their dignity stands alone.

For there in the stillness of morning,

ere the sun has emerged from the east,

there God rests between the pure fingers,

of the beautiful hands of a priest.

When we are tempted and wander,

to pathways of shame and sin,

'tis the hand of a priest that will absolve us,

not once but again and again.

And when we are taking life's partner,

other hands may prepare us a feast,

but the hands that will bless and unite us,

are the beautiful hands of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,

for the Host which their fingers caress,

what can a poor sinner do better,

but to praise thee who chose thee to bless.

When the death dews on our eyes are falling.

may our courage and strength be increased,

to see, raised above us in blessing,

the beautiful hands of a priest."