This is for everyone whose life seems to be getting shorter. Do not despair, for greater things lie ahead. Sometimes what seems to be a suffering, just draws us closer to Divine beauty and is really a blessing....

A Poem by Joseph R. Veneroso, M.M.

Autumn splendor of the leaf whose life

appears all but past and yet

there, in its final days, reveals a glory

heretofore hidden by its youth.

Stained and pungent from harvests past

only when the winepress crushes grapes

can life's fermentation yield

a choice and worthy vintage.

So do not fear or fret

when youth passes and beauty fades

as they always have and surely will.

Memory, too, may well grow dim with time

and strength diminish in due course.

Forget all else but remember this:

A deeper strength, an inner beauty

will emerge, as a statue

from the living rock

chipped and polished

by the Sculptor's hand.

But should wisdom not come with age

and time and illness rob a once

proud and noble frame of all comeliness;

should humor fail, kindness flee

and even hope and faith take flight

then, even then, especially then

recall how from the ruins of fallen humanity

a Savior rose and will return

and in the flesh we too will one day

rise and ascend.