If every home were an altar,

Where holiness vows were paid,

And life’s best gifts in sacrament

Of purest love were laid;

If every home were an altar

Where harsh and angry thought

Was cast aside for kindly one,

And true forgiveness sought;

If every home were an altar

Where hearts weighed down with care

Could find sustaining strength and grace

In sweet uplift of prayer;

Then solved would be earth’s problem

Banished sin’s curse and blight;

For God’s own love would radiate

From every altar light.

-–Selected