Christ, I have trusted You for my Salvation,
and for my soul's timely sanctification;
then Heaven as my final destination.
All these, Lord Jesus, you bestowed on me
(still undeserving). Let my poetry
dispose some of the lost world's apathy
toward spiritual truth, and make a proclamation
of your unbounded Grace. Let my elation
offer to You, Christ, my praise without cessation
for the Orthodox Faith in Common Salvation,
which is and shall always be my soul's chiefest exultation
among the redeemed of the great congregation;
as well as my Prayer Rope's starward inclination.
Starward, an Orthodox Christian
[*/+/^]
Author's Notes/Comments:
It is my fervent prayer, and standing request, that, when the time comes, this poem be read last at the conclusion of my funeral service. The poem alludes to Jude 3 and to Psalm 35:9 and 18. Jude 3; and Psalm 35:9 and 18. In the alphabetical arrangement of my poems, this is the final annotation referring to those three Scriptures; and is to be taken as a citation to them when they are alluded to or quoted in any poem in the list previous to this one. Jude's term common salvation represents, to me, the Orthodox Faith; the Psalms' term great congregation represents the Orthodox Church.
These definitions are to be considered applicable to all my poems before and after this one.