Roman Catholic Canon

No two people are born with the same walk of salvation.

Each person will begin where they are on their own path,

But marriage depends on a common final goal.

Each spouse will sometimes follow and sometimes lead,

Each waiting and encouraging as may be necessary.

Only, in this manner, can a family remain whole.

Not only the two must continue focusing on the goal;

Those who came before them must also watch and wait.

How many of us get in a hurry to secure our own place,

And cut loose the others on our life's relay team?

Unless we stop and look back now and then,

We may get their first, but we still lose the race. 


"On completion of the seventh year, 

A minor is presumed to have the use of reason."

This is the teaching of the Roman Catholic canon.

And is the way parents put blame and shame

For their predecessor's and their own errors

Onto their young daughters and their sons.

What foolishness to think that any child

With so little knowledge and experience of life, 

A baby who hasn't even reached puberty,

Is able to take the full credit or blame,

For their own or any other's actions.

They're not ready for such responsibility.

But those who have been shackled

With adult fear and abuse from a young age,

Are always carrying an unfair burden.

They were tasked with undeserved shame

From their ancestors and authorities, too.

The weight becomes too much for them.
 

We were the children caught between

The Vengeful, Jealous God and His Son.

We had no hope of eternal peace or harmony.

The scriptures between which we were sandwiched

Left no room for human argument or error;

There was no path in which our spirits could fly free.

Some of my beloveds have given up,

And they have finally destroyed themselves,

Rather than continue the search for perfection.

Some have taken others to be with them, 

While they rejected all family values,

Rather than to risk their own rejection.


We now seek a scared place somewhere on earth,

Where we can find some place of rest and peace.

There is no further perfection in any part of creation,

Than the place where a group of us is made to be.

We must stop fighting to achieve our best selves alone;

This is not the purpose of any human being's station.


So gather to yourself those who join with joy 
In your walk back to your own innocence.
Allow yourself to be remade in the image of Divinity.
You were born perfect through the blood of your mother.
You deserved to be protected by the those who made you. 
You, and those who nurture you, are your community.