PROVIDENCE

for Mary

   “The Universe provides,” she likes to say,
   Believing what befalls us must make sense,
   Intended for our benefit, some way,
   The gifts of an all-loving Providence.

   What one must do is pray and then expect
   In confidence that what is right for you
   In due time will arrive and prove correct,
   Though at the first you hold a different view,

   For what you want may not be what you need,
   As a beneficent provider knows,
   But may express mere appetite and greed
   And not the urge from which true goodness grows.

        The Universe provides just what is best;
        Our part’s to trust a pure heart will be blest.

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