Ode to the Church

In my trips to the gym, lately I've been listening to talks given by Abp. Dolan at a retreat he gave at Mount St. Mary's Seminary back in 2008. In the talk I listened to this morning, he read a poem by the Italian poet Carlo Carretto, entitled, "Ode to the Church":

Now much I criticize you, my church,

and yet how much I love you!

You have made my suffer more than anyone

and yet I owe more to you than to anyone.

I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.

You have given me much scandal

and yet you alone have made me understand holiness.

Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised,

more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure,

more generous or more beautiful.

Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face -

and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms!

No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you,

even if not completely you.

Then too - where would I go? To build another church?

But I could not build one without the same defects,

for they are my defects.

And again, if I were to build another church,

it would be my church, not Christ's church.

No, I am old enough, I know better.