Blog
I celebrate
this journey
knowing
the enfoldment of love
of nurturing
of learning
the pain of weakness
of partings
of growth in
the desire to explore
to reach
to trust
the call to follow
to allow grace to flow
to love and be loved
to answer.
- Sister Mary St. Louis, csj, December 1987
IMAGE: Unsplash/Javier Allegue Barros
A Winter Garden
A garden that is dormant, is not dormant nor is a soul at rest.
For beneath the surface much is stirring.
The garden grows, and the soul is yearning.
A tiny seed that blew in the fall and settled within the soil,
is just beginning its life in the cold dark earth.
The soul awakens as a stirring in the heart of the one,
who seeks the wisdom they have not yet found.
As winter gives way to spring,
And the flowers start to bloom.
The spirit in the heart shakes the soul too.
The soul awakens with celebration of new life within,
just as the seed splits and lets the birth begin.
So let us celebrate this wintertime and all it has to give.
-Sister Donna Smith, CSJ | January 28, 2023
One by one
the leaves let go
Image: Joey Genovese/Unsplash
falling
to the waiting earth below.
The tree stands
naked
in its bereavement
tall and strong
it weather winter snows
knowing that when spring arrives
her beauty will return
clad in leaves of glorious green
a sheltering for the birds
a shade for summer’s sun.
Until October’s brush
paints her anew
with fiery reds and shimmering golds
and once again she stands
in full magnificence
yet knowing that
as the seasons change
she must again let go
and wait upon the spring.
-Sister Kathleen Lyons, csj
She leaves her water jar by Jacob’s well
And runs
Life-giving water gushing up
Through eternal springs
Baptizing her with everlasting life
Come. The Messiah sits by Jacob’s well
Come. Hear the word of the Promised One
I hear and I believe
I leave my water jar empty
And drink the saving waters
Of God’s eternal spring. (Jn. 5-24)
-Sister Kathleen Lyons, csj
Rose-glow seeps into my slow wakefulness
Soft suffusions of a dawning day
Silently
Vermillion valets of the golden sun
Prepare the world anew
For glorious rising
Night darkness gone
Time leaps expectant of the coming morn
Waiting…until
Bright-white bursts the splendour of the day
Illuminating life with light
And God’s fidelity
Bow down my soul
And greet the promised day
Love’s herald
In reverent awe give thanks
And praise!
-Sister Kathleen Lyons, csj
