Beneath Thy Cross

Am I a stone and not a sheep,

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,

To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,

And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved

Who with exceeding grief lamented thee;

Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;

Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon

Which hid their faces in a starless sky,

A horror of great darkness at broad noon—

I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,

But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;

Greater than Moses, turn and look once more

And smite a rock.


~Christina Rossetti

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26