One Health, One Hope, One Rest

One goodness ruleth by its single will
All things that are, and have been, and shall be,
Itself abiding, knowing naught of change.
This is true health, this is the blessed life.
Here, O ye prisoners of empty hope,
Minds kept in bonds by pleasure, haste ye to return.
Here, here your rest, sure rest for all your hurt,
Eternal harbour for your quiet anchorage,
Shelter and refuge for unhappy men
That's always open.
This is the Father, and the Son, and the kind Holy Ghost,
One King omnipotent, one called the Trinity.
One love, O thou that readest, that shall be
Thine to eternity,
That sent this mighty gift of books
That reading, thou mightst recognize thy Maker,
King, Maker of all things, Father, Redeemer,
The Saviour Christ, to whom be glory.

--Alcuin of York (735-804), trans. Helen Waddell, in Prayers, ed. Peter Washington (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), p. 167.

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