Tiernan: Penance (October 2007-New Orleans)
For a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous.
-Publilius Syrus, Maxims
Kneeling at the alter, I go through the motions I have for hundreds of years. I speak the tongue of the Latins in the way it was spoken at Rome's height in supplication before I begin. The oddly shaped scourge in the brazer has sat just long enough to make the metal hot. I gird my will and steel my flesh in preparation.
"The Testament and Canons are clear upon the only crime worthy of death. I have broken this canon recently within the past, and ask that you accept my penance, oh Lord. Know that I do all that I must for the glory of our Purpose. Know that I keep to the holy task you have given unto me. I as your willing servant, accept my role within your Divine Plan. I am God's Holy Monster, a drinker of mankind. I sup at the table of man's folly and sin. I make this world his prison. I bring him ruin as a testing pestilence that only your Divine Light can prevent.
I make men worthy of your love. I hold the Damned to our given task. I hold sacred your works and Traditions, given unto us by our very Damnation. I do what I must in your name.
I do not ask your forgiveness for I am Damned, but I merely ask that you accept my offering and know that I am still your humble servant."
The lash burns me, boiling the skin and flesh beneath. The combustion is only stopped by the fortitude of my undying flesh and the blood of sinners within me.
Each lash of my penance provokes thought of the cause of it...the ending of one's Damnation. I reflect on the death of one who would slay other Damned with little cause, and my blade in his neck. I reflect on the nun who embraced her young charges, and my order to burn and salt the earth of her home. I reflect on her charges given to the fire.
I failed them. Apostates. Murderers. Anathema. Those that breach the Traditions. I did not reach them before they were too far gone.
There is still hope for others. Let their first steps towards such begin soon. I pray for them.
I continue to swing until the lash breaks and will my wounds closed.
"Amen."
-Publilius Syrus, Maxims
Kneeling at the alter, I go through the motions I have for hundreds of years. I speak the tongue of the Latins in the way it was spoken at Rome's height in supplication before I begin. The oddly shaped scourge in the brazer has sat just long enough to make the metal hot. I gird my will and steel my flesh in preparation.
"The Testament and Canons are clear upon the only crime worthy of death. I have broken this canon recently within the past, and ask that you accept my penance, oh Lord. Know that I do all that I must for the glory of our Purpose. Know that I keep to the holy task you have given unto me. I as your willing servant, accept my role within your Divine Plan. I am God's Holy Monster, a drinker of mankind. I sup at the table of man's folly and sin. I make this world his prison. I bring him ruin as a testing pestilence that only your Divine Light can prevent.
I make men worthy of your love. I hold the Damned to our given task. I hold sacred your works and Traditions, given unto us by our very Damnation. I do what I must in your name.
I do not ask your forgiveness for I am Damned, but I merely ask that you accept my offering and know that I am still your humble servant."
The lash burns me, boiling the skin and flesh beneath. The combustion is only stopped by the fortitude of my undying flesh and the blood of sinners within me.
Each lash of my penance provokes thought of the cause of it...the ending of one's Damnation. I reflect on the death of one who would slay other Damned with little cause, and my blade in his neck. I reflect on the nun who embraced her young charges, and my order to burn and salt the earth of her home. I reflect on her charges given to the fire.
I failed them. Apostates. Murderers. Anathema. Those that breach the Traditions. I did not reach them before they were too far gone.
There is still hope for others. Let their first steps towards such begin soon. I pray for them.
I continue to swing until the lash breaks and will my wounds closed.
"Amen."