The Beautiful Hands of a Priest

Fr. Steven M. Grancini's hands 

We need them in life's early morning,

We need them again at its close;

We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,

We seek it while tasting life's woes.

When we come to this world we are sinful,

The greatest as well as the least.

And the hands that make us pure as angels

Are the beautiful hands of a priest.

At the altar each day we behold them,

And the hands of a king on his throne

Are not equal to them in their greatness

Their dignity stands alone.

For there in the stillness of morning

Ere the sun has emerged from the east,

There God rests between the pure fingers

Of the beautiful hands of a priest.

When we are tempted and wander

To pathways of shame and sin

'Tis the hand of a priest that absolve us.

Not once but again and again.

And when we are taking life's partner

Other hands may prepare us a feast

But the hands that will bless and unite us,

Are the beautiful hands of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,

For the Host which their fingers caress,

What can a poor sinner do better

Than to ask Him who chose them to bless

When the death dews on our lids are falling,

May our courage and strength be increased

By seeing raised o'er us in blessing

The beautiful hands of a priest.