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THE CANDLES WE LIGHT
By Anna Higbee Gahm
CI – California
This is a candle lighting ceremony. The candles should be lighted during the ceremony.
“Let there be light!” The great Creator spoke!
A million stars, in heaven, then awoke;
The sun arose and shone, t’was warm and bright,
A “lesser light” was kindled for the night.
T’was this God lighted up the earthly way;
Moonbeams and starshine! Sunlight for the day!
E’er since Creation’s dawn, frail folk of earth
Have sought for light, e’en from the day of birth.
Have fought and struggled that some gleam and glow.
Brighten the path we travel here below;
And if the way be but a dim, dark trail,
Along that path we falter not, nor fail.
Let us look back across the long, long years
At seven beacons which our way still cheers;
Lighted by those who still believed in HIM,
Lighted by girlish hands so slim.
In memory of that day, now long agone,
We light these seven candles—slowly—one by one;
And in our hearts we linger o’er the names.
Of seven girls who kindled first those flames.
All through their lives they held the candles high,
And passed them on to us—a lasting tie.
Their heritage we’ve guarded, and been true,
And other beacons we have lighted, too.
The “Fund For Education” is the theme,
That brings to this tall candle its bright gleam;
And, this another light along the way,
Is a memorial, which is ours today.
Our Library upon the campus old,
The campus where first shone our star of gold;
Here, to our lights, we add another flame,
And Cottey College is the candle’s name.
We stand not still, but onward, forward to go,
And light this, for the “Homes” of P.E.O.
New tapers wait the touch of hand and heart,
New duties call—and we will do our part.
And always, ever when the year is new,
We turn the pages back in brief review,
Of that great day—that January morn,
When P.E.O., our Sisterhood, was born.