Many years ago (or should I say decades, there was a piece of philosophy that seemed destined to appear in commencement speeches of high schoolers and college grads. This that poem.
To be honest I always found that sentiment to be a little bit arrogant. It celebrated the human spirit. It was good motivation and rhetorically pleasing, but bad theology. Then I discovered Dorothy Day’s revision. That was a message worth proclaiming.
Invictus
rewritten by Dorothy Day
Out of the night that dazzles me,
Bright as the sun from pole to pole,
I thank the God I know to be
For Christ the conqueror of my soul.
Since His the sway of circumstance,
I would not wince nor cry aloud.
Under that rule which men call chance
My head with joy is humbly bowed.
Beyond this place of sin and tears
That life with Him! And His the aid,
Despite the menace of the years,
Keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.
I have no fear, though strait the gate,
He cleared from punishment the scroll.
Christ is the Master of my fate,
Christ is the Captain of my soul.
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Perhaps it should be noted that this was not by the founder of the Catholic WOrker movement, but an earlier Dorothy Day.
ReplyDeletePhil, Thanks for posting on the blog and thank you for that clarification. I think most of us assume it was the other Dorothy Day.
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