Writings

of Father James E. Coyle

Our National Flag

Do they dare, do they dare, to say we love not thee,
That we love thee not Old Glory, that floats above the free.
That we’re traitors to the Nation, that we cannot both be true
To the glorious Church Christ founded, and the Red, White and Blue.

They say the Roman Pontiff may ask us to betray
The glorious flag of Freedom’s land, and we must needs obey.
We must haul down at his behest, and in the mire must drag
The folds of dear Old Glory, our nation’s glorious flag.

Oh, they lie, they lie and know it, the base and bigot crew
Who say such things do basely lie. They know that we are true.
They know full well, that all the years that saw Old Glory wave
Saw sons of Mother Church stand staunch, the bravest of the brave.

We’ve shed our blood on many a field, we’ve fought on every sea
For the Stars and Stripes, the Nation’s flag of the brave and the free.
Again we swear if called to fight, we’ll gladly, proudly go
To man your ships and serve your gun’s gainst any foreign foe.

We’ll go, and Holy Church will bless the guns and swords of ours,
We use to bring destruction dire’ gainst any hostile powers.
Our love of Country does not change the love to God we bear.
God and our Country, both we love, for both we’ll do and dare.

Pray when did Pontiff message send, to ask us traitors be
To that dear flag, the Stars and Stripes, that waves above the free?
Not any year, of all the years since first Old Glory flew
Were sons of Church base traitor knaves. No, they were leal and true.

And leal and true are we today, we’ll follow where it waves;
We’ll follow even though if floats above our foreign graves.
We’ve sworn to serve that Glorious Flag, Let’s swear the oath anew,
Our flag, Old Glory, Freedom’s Flag, the Red and White and Blue.

More Writings

3

St. Patrick

I.

Tis Easter morn. On Meath’s fair hills
The sunlight softly falls.
It flashes from her sparkling rills,
It lightens Tara’s walls.
Tis emblem of the heavenly light
Now brought across the foam,
By him who stands in garments white,
The stranger priest from Rome.

II.

Stand all amazed the courtiers brave,
And harpers hush their lay,
As Patrick tells how Christ did save
And wash men’s sins away.
In deep amaze they crowd around,
These chiefs of Inisfail,
As Patrick, first on Irish ground,
Proclaims the gospel tale.

III.

He tells them of the Man-God’s love,
And then he leads them on
To mysteries of the heavens above,
Of Godhead, Three in One.
But murmurs, questioning arise,
These chieftains cannot see
How God, – with anger flash their eyes-
How God is One and Three.

IV.

The saint bends low, the trefoil spray,
The shamrock, from the sod
He holds aloft, by it that day
He proved the Triune God.
The king and all the court cry out,
Tis true, God’s wonderous powers
Fore er be praised. Lo  loud they shout-
Let Patrick’s God be ours.

V.

Thus Patrick, priest and late a slave,
To Erin’s isle did bring
The faith, the living faith to save
Her people and her king
And soon the pagan temples fall,
And soon, o’er Erin’s sod
Fair churches rise, and pillars tall,
To point the way to God.

VI.

The saint has gone. His children, we,
And scattered far away
From that dear land beyond the sea,
Where once he loved to pray.
We love the plant that once did prove
His faith, when o’er the foam
He came. We, too, his children, love
That faith he brought from Rome.

Remembering The Departed

Pulpit Notes October 8th 1905

One Mass only offered up for the intention of a member of the congregation. Are we forgetting our departed friends? When we are gone too well we too will doubtless be forgotten. Out of sight out of mind, we do not give these gone before the charity of a prayer or the sacrifice of Mass. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. With what measure you mete to others it shall be meters to you.

The Feast of St. Peter

Pulpit Notes June 25th 1905

Thursday is the feast of St. Peter and Paul. Peter formerly Simon till our Lord changed his name to Peter which signifies a rock-the unshaken rock on which the Church was built was the son of Jona and the brother of St. Andrew. He was made by our Savior Prince of the Apostles and head of the Church. He after Our Lords Ascension fixed his Episcopal see first at Antioch where he reigned for seven years and afterwards at Rome where he reigned 25. During the persecution of Nero he was crucified. Deeming himself unworthy to die as his Master died he begged to be crucified head downwards. His body is preserved in the most magnificent temple ever erected to the true God. Peter was succeeded by Linus who was succeeded by Cletus who was succeeded by Clement and so on in unbroken succession through all the stormy centuries of history till we come to our own day when his successor is Giuseppe Sarto who under the name of Pius X is gloriously reigning whom may God preserve.

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The Father James E. Coyle Memorial Project

We invite your participation and you may reach a representative of this project at:

Phone

(205) 969-0771

E-mail

mail@fathercoyle.org

Contact Information:

Fr. James E. Coyle Memorial Project
P.O. Box 43217
Birmingham, AL 35243

Office Location:

Cathedral Of St. Paul
2120 3rd Ave. North
Birmingham, AL. 35203