My Arrogant Younger Brother

The final two lines in the second stanza are those

of Proverbs 21:4 from The New English Bible.

Brother on his high 

Horse looks down on me and rides 

Roughshod over me.

I will not sit at table 

With my proud, pompous brother.

Brother on his high 

Horse looks down on me and rides 

Roughshod over me.

"Haughty looks and a proud heart --

These sins mark a wicked man."

The Prayer of Abandonment

"Charles de Foucauld is remembered today as a desert hermit and missionary, and as author of 'The Prayer of Abandonment,' a petition of radical faith and surrender." So begins "A Short Sketch of Charles de Foucauld's Life" by American writer William Woolfitt in his poetry collection Charles of the Desert: A Life in Verse (Paraclete Press, 2016). "The Prayer of Abandonment," without its title, is the epigraph in that poetry collection. Here is that prayer.

I abandon myself into your hands;

do with me what you will.

Whatever you may do, I thank you:

I am ready for all, I accept all.

--Charles de Foucauld

1858 - 1916

To read more about Charles de Foucauld, click here.