Fides et Ratio

Even from my days of unlearned youth,

I sensed the reality of an objective truth.

It is not a thing that from the mind is born,

But rather something to which the mind conforms.

Walking through the woods one day,

I spied a pile of stones twelve high.

The builder’s name I could not say,

Though his creation I surely could not deny.

For even the mind’s eye of a child can seize,

Stones do not stack by their own desire or a breeze.

No, such a design could only be fulfilled,

By an architect whose creation with purpose had willed.

Exiting the woods, an old man did I see.

“Saw you my pile of stones?” asked he.

And trust that he spoke true did I,

For I could imagine no cause he had to lie.

Reason and faith, like two wings on a dove,

Allow the soul to soar and rise above.

Reason let me see things arranged in their place,

And faith the grace by which I saw the creator’s face.