You are Tree

A poem read by parishioner Joyce Ellis at the

2023 Holy Cross Father's Day Celebration.

You are Sequoia. Towering and majestic, ancient and new, withstanding millennia of tempests and turbulence.

You are Oak. Upright. Undaunted, emitting bittersweet scents that repel fear and inertia, firmly planted in faith and an abiding Love.

You are Sycamore. Tree of Zacchaeus, climbing and climbing, holding aloft our children’s dreams no more deferred, gazing upward, eyes fixed on the prize.

You are Cedar. Calming and comforting.

You are Boabab, born of African earth, borne on the wings of thousands gone; thriving and surviving in the deserts of America, nourished by the eternal food.

You are Acacia. Ancestral. Resilient. Biblical. Timeless.

You are Holy Cross, Men of God. Our Trees of Life, of Love.

— Joyce Ellis, read at the 2023 Holy Cross Father's Day Celebration.