Lourdes was a bonfire thousands of candles and burning cries and a week of rising suns over an esplanade where stretcher cases lay side by side, end to end, waiting for a priest to come with a monstrance that gathered sun to its gold and blazed in the sign of the cross above the stretchers. |
Never forget that [God] tests his real friends more severely than the lukewarm ones. |
The awesome antiphon swelled in the dark and expanded. |
The dark-veiled silhouette that solitary form patrolling without visible strain or vainglory a demented dreamland of fearful potential. |