A mountaineer’s prayer

We wish for success and safety for all the hikers who will be climbing this long weekend. We will be celebrating the Philppine Independence Day tomorrow, but everytime we climb, we celebrate the beauty of God’s creation and invoke his guidance and protection.

Lucy Larcom was an American poet who wrote beautiful poems and hymns about the mountains where she climbed. Two of her poems form what is now known as “A mountaineer’s prayer”. Although the language is archaic, any hiker can relate to the epiphanies that she describe, and the poem still rings beautifully:

A MOUNTAINEER’S PRAYER

Lucy Larcom, 1885

Gird me with the strength of Thy steadfast hills,

The speed of Thy streams give me!

In the spirit that calms, with the life that thrills,

I would stand or run for Thee.

Let me be Thy voice, or Thy silent power,

As the cataract, or the peak, —

An eternal thought, in my earthly hour,

Of the living God to speak!

Clothe me in the rose-tints of Thy skies,

Upon morning summits laid!

Robe me in the purple and gold that flies

Through Thy shuttles of light and shade!

Let me rise and rejoice in Thy smile aright,

As mountains and forests do!

Let me welcome Thy twilight and Thy night,

And wait for Thy dawn anew!

Give me the brook’s faith, joyously sung

Under clank of its icy chain!

Give me of the patience that hides among

The hill-tops, in mist and rain!

Lift me up from the clod, let me breathe Thy breath,

Thy beauty and strength give me!

Let me lose both the name and the meaning of death,

In the life that I share with Thee!