For My Brother: Reported Missing in Action, 1943 by Thomas Merton Sweet brother, if I do not sleep My eyes are flowers for your tomb; And if I cannot eat my bread, My fasts shall live like willows where you died. If in the heat I find no water for my thirst, My thirst shall turn to springs for you, poor traveller. Where, in what desolate and smokey country, Lies your poor body, lost and dead? And in what landscape of disaster Has your unhappy spirit lost its road? Come, in my labor find a resting place And in my sorrows lay your head, Or rather take my life and blood And buy yourself a better bed Or take my breath and take my death And buy yourself a better rest. When all the men of war are shot And flags have fallen into dust, Your cross and mine shall tell men still Christ died on each, for both of us. For in the wreckage of your April Christ lies slain, And Christ weeps in the ruins of my spring: The money of Whose tears shall fall Into your weak and friendless hand, And buy you back to your own land: The silence of Whose tears shall fall Like bells upon your alien tomb. Hear them and come: they call you home.

Not a day goes past without a thought for you Patrick.

Prayers said by Valerie for Patrick at Orewa Beach, July 14/15 2023 Receive, O Lord, the soul of thy servant Patrick, returned to Thee; clothe him with heavenly garments, and wash him in the sacred fountain of eternal life; so that he may rejoice with the joyful, learn wisdom with the wise, be crowned with the martyrs, go forth with patriarchs and prophets; with the holy apostles follow Christ, with angels and archangels behold the glory of God; possess the joy of God among the precious stones of Paradise, and come to the knowledge of the mysteries of God; with Cherubim and Seraphim behold the brightness of God, with the four and twenty elders hear the song of songs, wash his robes with them that wash them in the fountain of light; with those who knock, find open the doors of the heavenly Jerusalem; and have part with those who behold God face to face; sing with those who sing the new song, and hearken with those who hearken to the harmony of Heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end, Amen. Also offered - a prayer to Poseidon, "By the Lords of the Sea, may he find his way to the shores of serenity, and all the goodness of the Gods." "Peace to the living: repose to the departed."