I’ve been thinking about how I would answer my own query at the end of yesterday’s post, and one thing that immediately came to mind that brings beauty into my own life is a little photo album of art prints and such that I have collected. For many of them I have an accompanying quote on the facing page. Often I use it as an accompaniment in prayer, a source of meditation. One example of this can be found here. And here is another example:
I find this image of Mary quite beautiful. Its title is Mary, the Mother and Consolation of the Grieving. The following is the poem I have placed opposite it:
THE POOL OF GOD
There was nothing in the Virgin’s soul
that belonged to the Virgin–
no word, no thought, no image, no intent.
She was a pure, transparent pool reflecting
God, only God.
She held His burnished day; she held His night
of planet-glow or shade inscrutable.
God was her sky and she who mirrored Him
became His firmament.
When I so much as turn my thoughts toward her
my spirit is enisled in her repose.
And when I gaze into her selfless depths
an anguish in me grows
to hold such blueness and to hold such fire.
I pray to hollow out my earth and be
filled with these waters of transparency.
I think that one could die of this desire,
seeing oneself dry earth or stubborn sod.
Oh, to become a pure soul like the Virgin,
water that lost the semblances of water
and was a sky like God.
~Jessica Powers
Marian poetry speaks to me much during Advent. Thanks for sharing the poems.
Reblogged this on Witnesses to Hope and commented:
Oh, to be like her . . .
What a great idea Dorcee…making your own prayer book with art prints and the like…the things that one finds particularly helpful or moving oneself toward prayer. I want to do that!