La Storta – “Place us with Your Son”


Eight miles more before nightfall
to reach the holy city;
weary, footsore, he stops here
at La Storta, rests, and prays.
Eight miles, and the journey’s done.
He begs the Lady yet again
To place him with her Son;
another year before he says
priestly words to bread and wine.
Lady, place us with your Son.
A change, sudden and great,
overcomes his soul, he sees
all light: the Father and the Son
Who daily shoulders His Cross.
All is light, and light crucified.
The Father desires the Son
to take the pilgrim as His servant;
the Son desires the Father’s will:
to obey is how He loves.
Father, place us with Your Son.
A servant is not greater
than his Master; every day
the Master carries the Cross.
In the company of Jesus
Pick up your cross and follow.
He finds his Master every day
in all the hungry, the thirsty,
the stranger and the naked,
the sick and those in prison.
Place us, Father, with Your Son.
His Master is Christ poor,
replete with opprobrium,
and crucified, every day.
The servant desires nothing more.
Calvary, not Babylon.
Christ the Lord calls His servant
no longer servant but friend;
break now the bread, take the wine,
say the words in an upper room.
Father, place us with Your Son.
Another gift, great and sudden,
overcomes him; whatever happens
the Father promises to be
favourable to him in Rome.
This is another beginning.
He continues on his way
towards the eternal city,
where all the windows are closed
against him. Only eight miles
and your pilgrimage is done.
Place us, Father, with the Son.
ANNOTATION 10
Your destination is always a surprise,
a holy place always gifts you with silence;
leave the Holy Land and it remains with you for ever.
Andrew Bullen SJ, Ignatius the Pilgrim: Poems and Prayers, 2013