RESTORATION

The God of the Second Chance

--and the third, the fourth, the fifth Chance

REBUILDING ALTARS

Leona Choy

Long ago on a distant hill

in the springtime of my soul

I gathered a pile of stones

beneath an ancient oak.

It was my altar

where I knelt unseen by man

in intimacy with my God

for my special consecration.

Occasionally I return

if only in my memory

and seek that tree and the stones

and my place of sacrament.

Sometimes I find

the rocks scattered haphazardly

by insensitive hands

or nature's accident

perchance by passing time.

So I perform the ritual

of gathering them again

piling one upon another

to reassemble my altar.

I kneel to restore my commitment

to the Lord, my Rock.

Such is life:

the rebuilding

over and over

of personal altars

and the renewal

of promises made

to our Ever-Merciful

and Forgiving God:

The God of the Second Chance.