Ad Coelum, or Ethel makes a point.

Ethel lived a life of relative anonymity, struggling to raise her children in a time when it was unusual for a woman to be a single mother. She worked for many years in a factory, and supplemented her income with a second job. Her mother, Laura, lived with her, and the two of them pooled their resources and made sure the children had all that they needed.

One day, Ethel arrived home from work very upset about something that had transpired during the day. She stomped around the house, muttering to herself. Finally, she calmed down enough to tell her daughter about the cause of her consternation.

A co-worker had spent the day grumbling about how she intended to disown her daughter because she planned to marry a Catholic. Ethel didn't understand why in the world it mattered that a Baptist was marrying a Catholic.

"Help me find that poem", Ethel instructed her daughter.

An old and tattered book of poetry was retrieved, and the poem was found on page 80. Ethel sat down and hand wrote it out onto a piece of stationery. It would go into her co-workers locker the next day, and Ethel would never say another word to anyone on the subject.

Ad Coelum

At the muezzin's call for prayer,
The kneeling faithful thronged the square,
And on Pushkara's lofty height
The dark priest chanted Brahma's might.
Amid a monastery's weeds
An old Franciscan told his beads;
While to the synagogue there came
A Jew to praise Jehovah's name.
The one great God looked down and smiled
And counted each His loving child;
For Turk and Brahmin, monk and Jew
Had reached Him through the gods they knew.

--Harry Romaine, "Munsey's Magazine", Jan. 1895