Sonnet

I sometimes wonder how it would have been
Had priests and laymen read the Council texts,
And had they not so sorely been vexed
With false talk of some “Spirit”, ‘way back then.

I wonder what we might have sometime seen,
Instead of churches turned into vast wrecks,
Had laity applied some vital checks
Upon the changes made by clerks unseen.

The damage has been done, though; at what cost
I do not think that we have measured yet,
Nor have we seen all that will come to be.

But we should not give up our Church for lost,
Nor look upon Her, sadly, with regret:
Her restoration starts with you and me.

--Bernard Brandt