Friday, April 27, 2007
Feast of Christina Rossetti, Poet, 1894
Good Friday

 

Am I a stone, and not a sheep

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,

To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,

And yet not weep?

 

Not so those women loved

Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;

Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;

Not so the thief was moved;

 

Not so the Sun and Moon

Which hid their faces in a starless sky,

A horror of great darkness at broad noon—

I only I.

 

Yet give not o’er

But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;

Greater than Moses, turn and look once more

And smite a rock.

... Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), Christina Rossetti: the complete poems, London: Penguin Classics, 2001, p. 180-181 (see the book; see also Heb. 3:1-4; Eze. 11:19; 36:26; Matt. 27:55-56; Luke 22:61-62; 23:49; more at Blood, Cross, Darkness, Easter, Good Friday, Love, Prayers, Weep)

 
Compilation Copyright, 1996-2024, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day,
        with Robert Douglas, principal contributor
Logo image Copyright 1996 by Shay Barsabe, of “Simple GIFs”, by kind permission.
Send comments to curator@cqod.com.

Last updated: 04/11/17

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