No one owns the water. No one owns the land. No one owns the oceans. No one owns the sand. These are given by our Mother. The planet provides for free. Only by the hands of the greedy, does the Earth require a fee.
-Poet Christopher
He has Risen.
He has risen as He said,
No questioning or abetting.
Jesus the risen Lord is among us
Challenging our thoughts and actions,
Luring us on to a new path
One of joy, praise and trust,
One with Him in mind and heart
Made new in the Resurrection.
- Sr. Eileen Foran, age 95
TRANSFORMATION
OH, THE DEPTH
When I read this poem I felt the depth of our Sisters of St. Joseph charism and wholeness of the evolutionary process of all of Creation. The person who wrote this poem is my classmate, Sister Caroline Bering.
She told me that it “just came to her”. My impulse to share this poem with you is that I felt that it would resonate with many of us and together we would feel its beauty, goodness, and truth.
Here is the poem as originally written by Caroline without punctuation. Just let the poem speak! -Sister Mary Vandersteen
TRANS
FORM
A
TION
is it the fuzzy caterpillar letting go of its very self
to become an amazing butterfly
or maybe it’s the excited bud imagining what it will be –
a rosebud
or even a yellow head dandelion always turning to the sun
or
is it me looking inward through layers and layers
until I reach down to
the divine spark
that calls me to flare forth
in a blazing fire of love
to ignite cold hearts to burn with compassion
~Sister Caroline Bering
Knockdown
Knockdown
“…In the wilderness,
Prepare the way of the Lord.”
Is.40.3
Prophet Isaiah seems so fitting
during this time of lockdown and concern.
Indeed, we are isolated
and thrown onto our own devices
to cope day by day.
Prayer and more prayer if one answer,
and hearken us back to our forefathers
who hung on with trust
in the Providence of God.
Is there a lesson here for us?
- Sr. Eileen Foran, 95
-in lockdown -
A Poem
Mary-Win
Frail, tiny, and still,
She voices no sound
nor moves her rigid limbs.
Unseeing eyes are half-closed.
Does she hear our speech
or feel the hands of those who
turn, move, lift, or cleanse her unresisting body?
She slowly consumes food and water dispensed one spoonful at a time.
Some question the purpose of her altered state of being alive.
Does she suffer?
Is her choice, this shadowed life?
Is MaryWin simply a burden?
Yet in the glow emanating from her face, we are graced with the
glimmer of a different reality.
We glimpse beauty and truth not measured by mere human understanding.
A tree gives praise and glory to the Creator with the voice of a tree.
Mary-Win, in being Mary-Win,
voices praise to God,
and beckons us
to grasp the Love and Truth we yet cannot see.
-Sister Patricia McKeon, csj