You, who delivered us when we were still enslaved
By sin and selfishness, do not abandon us
Now in our time of despair nor turn your face
From our pitiful plight when all else fails
And faithless friends flee,
But come to us again in our hour of need.

Not from among mighty empires, nations or peoples
Did you choose one worthy to bear your truth
But from among the impoverished and oppressed —
The nobodies of the world — you lifted up Moses
As liberator and lawgiver to forge a royal race
By revealing your divine and liberating Name.

Yet now as then it is that very freedom we find most
Frightening and so fashion for ourselves new idols
Not of gold but greed and power and fame
And willingly rebind ourselves with chains
Not of iron but rather deceptively pleasant potions
To soothe our conscience and wounded pride.

This time not up Sinai’s soaring slope but on
Calvary’s consecrated crest you bid us
Take the shoes from off our feet
For the very Earth on which we stand is holy ground
And nothing must ever come between us
And this first sacrament revealing exactly who I AM.