Bless You, O God

Sacred Heart ~ The Church of My Baptism ~ The Bronx, New York

The Church celebrates Jesus' Conception in March, Mary's Conception in December, St. John the Baptist's Conception in September.  Do we ever thank God for our own conception - when God imagined us into existence? Which thought has led me to other gratitudes.

~ ~ ~ 

Bless you, O God, for the May night of my conception.
 Was that the night an angel was assigned to my care?

Bless you, O God, for the early Sunday morning of my birth.
  And mother said: "Stephen, you popped out into the arms of a nun
  in time for the first Mass."

Bless you, O God, for my mother's decision to name me Stephen Peter.
  And when the Irish Matriarch,
  the Irish Aunt and
  the Irish cousin said,
  "Better Peter Stephen,"
  the young mother leaned in and said,
  "Thank you all the same, but Stephen Peter will do just fine."

Bless you, O God, for the February afternoon of my Bronx Baptism.
  And my return to that font as a young priest to thank
  the good Jesus for our meeting in the water.

Bless you, O God, for the Spring Saturday of my First Communion.
  And the old pastor wore a chasuble lustered like pearl
  with a painting of the Virgin Mary on the back
  where the orphry-d crossbeams intersect.

Bless you, O God, for the Autumn night of my priesthood ordination.
  And the five Puerto Rican lunch ladies who ran the cafeteria
  in the school where I taught before seminary,
  took the Long Island Railroad out from Manhattan
  to pray with us that night.

And Bless you, O God,
  for this moment graced,
  sitting in the car,
  waiting for a friend to come out from the doctor's office -
  for the summer trees swaying at the edge of the asphalt,
  for the sequence of green and red lights regulating traffic,
  for the high clouds gathering - dark and flat bottomed,
  for the road crew with their back-up-beeping truck.