Saints and angels, pray for us, and intercede,
that we may by the God of grace be blessed. For
you have seen the face of the Almighty; you
approach and comprehend the beauty of the
Holy One, much more than we, so limited in
vision and so fragile in belief. Or is it that we
see and do not know the Author of Creation
—in the shoulder of a hill as it reclines in the
embrace of Mother Earth, or in the still, deep,
sparkling pools of strangers’ eyes?
If only we could be the children we abandoned
long ago in favor of sophistication and of
freedom — though we soon enough were
disillusioned as to liberty. We found it
burdensome and wished we could be caged
again and innocent, surprised by joy.
For Paradise regained we pray — to be divested
of the heavy armor we have learned to wear,
believing it protected us; to shed anxiety, regret,
and guilt; to be instead aware of who and where
we are this very moment, undistracted by the
future or the past — to be, in fact, reborn, with
nothing added or subtracted, as when we were
formed.
This we are promised: God’s forgiveness,
seventy times seven, even more, surpassing our
transgressions. Are we not given morning to
remind us that we too, who dare to be, are daily
new? Why are we reluctant, then, to but accept
the full abundance of our blessedness? We
hesitate — it is unearned — forgetting grace.
But God is greater yet than everything the world
can tell us. Darkly through a glass we glimpse
eternity, perhaps, though half in wonder, half in
fear.
O Saints and Angels, show us how we might
approach the vast, the mystical and holy
presence that is Love; and as we stumble on the
path your purity illuminates, O Saints and
Angels, pray for us that we be undeceived of
evil, of disease and violence and death. For we
would walk behind him, pale reflections of his
glory, each to another, and would bind our will
to his direction, on our pilgrimage to Heaven.
Ì
Originally published in Unfamiliar Territory, Part 1, by Mary Campbell, ã 2007, Zero Gravity, LifeIsPoetry.net
Sister Alma Rose Has the Last Word 