Prayer for Canada

Happy Canada Day!

From verdant sweep and fresh sea deep

And Rocky mountain grandeur

From rolling plain of rippling grain

To babbling brook meander

Lord, keep this land within Thy hand

And we, who troll its river

From shore to shore, let us adore

Oh Canada, Thy Giver

From solitude of winter’s wood

To spring’s green welcome wending

To summer’s flower bowers filled

And autumn-orchards bending

Lord, keep this land within Thy hand

And we who till its acre

Let us adore from shore to shore

Oh Canada, Thy Maker

This bit of loam that we call home

Of wild-life, still-life forest

Of maple tree and liberty

City and country glorious

Lord, hear our prayer and lend Thy care

To we, of sundry weather

From shore to shore and door to door

Bless Canada forever

Lord, let us guard with loyal heart

And love, one for another

This true north strong and free, that we

May all be sister-brother

Lord, bless and keep us kind and true

And in your Mercy grounded

And not forsake the faith whereon

*This Canada was founded

© Janet Martin

* Cartier resolved to take formal possession of the country, and to indicate, in a conspicuous manner, that he did so in the name of the King, his master, and in the interests of religion. With these objects in view, on Friday, July 24th, a huge wooden cross, thirty feet in height, was constructed, and was raised with much ceremony, in sight of many of the Indians, close to the entrance of the harbor; three fleurs-de-lys being carved under the cross, and an inscription, "Vive le Roy de France." The French formed a circle on their knees around it, and made signs to attract the attention of the savages, pointing up to the heavens, "as if to show that by the cross came their redemption." 

JACQUES CARTIER. By Thomas D’Arcy McGee
I.
In the sea-port of Saint Malo ’twas a smiling morn in May When the Commodore Jacques Cartier to the westward sailed             away; In the crowded old Cathedral all the town were on their knees For the safe return of kinsmen from the undiscover’d seas; And every autumn blast that swept o’er pinnacle and pier
Filled manly hearts with sorrow and gentle hearts with fear.
II.
A year passed o’er Saint Malo—again came round the day When the Commodore Jacques Cartier to the westward sailed             away; But no tidings from the absent had come the way they went, And tearful were the vigils that many a maiden spent;
And manly hearts were filled with gloom and gentle hearts with fear When no tidings came from Cartier at the closing of the year.
III.
But the Earth is as the Future, it hath its hidden side, And the Captain of Saint Malo was rejoicing in his pride In the forests of the north—while his townsmen mourned his loss
He was rearing on Mount-Royal the fleur-de-lis and cross; And when two months were over and added to the year, Saint Malo hailed him home again, cheer answering to cheer.
IV.
He told them of a region, hard, iron-bound and cold, Nor seas of pearl abounded, nor mines of shining gold,
Where the wind from Thulé freezes the word upon the lip, And the ice in spring comes sailing athwart the early ship; He told them of the frozen scene until they thrill’d with fear, And piled fresh fuel on the hearth to make him better cheer.
V.
But when he chang’d the strain—he told how soon is cast
In early Spring the fetters that hold the waters fast; How the Winter causeway broken is drifted out to sea, And the rills and rivers sing with pride the anthem of the free; How the magic wand of Summer clad the landscape to his eyes, Like the dry bones of the just, when they wake in Paradise.
VI.
He told them of the Algonquin braves—the hunters of the wild, Of how the Indian mother in the forest rocks her child; Of how, poor souls, they fancy in every living thing A spirit good or evil, that claims their worshipping; Of how they brought their sick and maim’d for him to breathe
upon,
And of the wonders wrought for them thro’ the Gospel of St.             John.
VII.
He told them of the river whose might current gave Its freshness for a hundred leagues to ocean’s briny wave; He told them of the glorious scene presented to his sight, What time he reared the cross and crown on Hochelaga’s height,
And of the fortress cliff that keeps of Canada the key, And they welcomed back Jacques Cartier from his perils over sea.