College Eternal

To our fratres who have crossed to INRI.

“Let me do my work each day and if the darkened hours of despair overtake me, may I not forget the strength that comforted me in the sadness of other times.

May I still remember the bright hours that found me walking over the silent hills of my childhood or dreaming on the margin of the quiet river, when a light glowed within me and I promised my early God to have courage amid the tempests of the changing years.

Spare me from bitterness and from the sharp passions of unguarded moments. Though the world know me not, may my thoughts and actions be such as shall keep me friendly with myself. Lift my eyes from the earth and teach me the uses of the stars. Forbid that I should judge others lest I condemn myself. Let me not follow the glamour of the world but walk calmly in my path.

Give me a few friends who will love me for what I am and not for what little I may possess. And though age and infirmity overtake me and I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams, teach me still to be thankful for life and for time’s olden memories that are good and sweet, and may the evening’s twilight find me gentle still.

Amen.”