My Song
You sing over me.
A bell tolling,
a flute rising,
a whippoorwill.
Each note pure and gold.
Each word chosen just for me.
for my heart,
for my soul,
for my need.
New year and every year.
Category: Poetry
Christmas Prayer
Written by one of our Sisters, Sr. Stacy Whitfield, and sung by the choir of Christ the King Catholic Church, Ann Arbor, MI at the Christmas Vigil, 2023.
The Ageless Hymn
Our hearts’ longing:
to sound Thy praises in fresh and untried ways,
To bring new pleasure to Thy ears
on this Feast of Thy Birth,
pouring at Thy feet rich ointment
of fragrance sweet,
And crowning Thy head with golden garlands
whose brightness is unvisioned.
But, alas, there is not song that is yet unsung
Or words unwritten to sound in Thy ears
Or gold of such wonder that is yet unseen.
There is nothing new found meet an fitting for Thee.
Except in Thee.
For You are the Praise and the Song and the Feast.
You alone are pleasing, and apart from Thee
there is no beauty.
In You is every new song,
And a life lived in Thee is a crown on Thy brow.
So on this day when hearts burst forth,
And seek to find new ways to praise,
We gladly lose our lives in You,
poured fully out at Thy feet.
And You, dear Christ, will be our Song,
ageless and renowned,
The perfect Hymn of offering.
26 December 1990
Feast of the Incarnation
Waiting-in-hope
Steep me in your stillness
As soon as I knocked
Wrote this five years after the previous poem. Slow learner.
A tiny bit of waiting-in-hope grace
Blessing the Door
Stumbled upon this beautiful Advent poem:
Blessing the Door
First let us say
Copyright Jan Richardson
a blessing
upon all who have
entered here before
us.
You can see the sign
of their passage
by the worn place
on the doorframe
as they walked through,
the smooth sill
of the threshold
where they crossed.
Press your ear
to the door
for a moment before
you enter
and you will hear
their voices murmuring
words you cannot
quite make out
but know
are full of welcome.
On the other side
these ones who wait –
for you,
if you do not
know by now –
understand what
a blessing can do
how it appears like
nothing you expected
how it arrives as
visitor,
outrageous invitation,
child;
how it takes the form
of angel
or dream;
how it comes
in words like
How can this be?
and
lifted up the lowly:
how it sounds like
in the wilderness
prepare the way.
Those who wait
for you know
how the mark of
a true blessing
is that it will take you
where you did not
think to go.
Once through this door
there will be more:
more doors
more blessings
more who watch and
wait for you
but here
at this door of
beginning
the blessings cannot
be said without you
So lay your palm
against the frame
that those before you
touched
place your feet
where others paused in this entryway.
Say the thing that
you most need
and the door will
open wide.
And by this word
the door is blessed
and by this word
the blessing is begun
from which
door by door
all the rest
will come.
– Jan Richardson, from Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas.
Royalty
Royalty
He was a plain man
and learned no latin.
Having left all gold behind
he dealt out peace
to all us wild ones
and the weather.
He ate fish, bread,
country wine and God’s will.
Dust sandaled his feet.
He wore purple only once
and that was an irony.
–Luci Shaw
Before His hands were bound
A profound meditation from Amy Carmichael:
The last thing He did before His hands were bound.
And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer you thus far. And He touched his ear and healed him. (Luke 22. 50, 51)
Then the band and the captain and the officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him. (John 18.12)
The last thing the Lord Jesus did before His hands were bound, was to heal.
Have you asked yourself, If I knew this was the last thing I should do, what would I do? I have never found the answer to that question. There are so very, very many things that would want to do for those whom we love, that I do not think we are likely to be able to find the chief one of all these. So the best thing is just to go on simply, doing each thing as it comes as well as we can.
Our Lord Jesus spent much time in healing sick people, and in the natural course of events it happened that the last thing He did with His kind hands was to heal a bad cut. (I wonder how they could have the heart to bind His hands after that.)
In this as in everything, He left us an example that we should follow in His steps. Do the thing that this next minute, this next hour, brings you, faithfully and lovingly and patiently; and then the last thing you do, before power to do is taken from you (if that should be), will be only the continuation of all that went before.
Witnesses to Hope 