We just celebrated Thanksgiving here in the United States. But everywhere at anytime we can give thanks. So, on this day, for what are you thankful? What or who fills you with gratitude?

What was said to the rose that made it open
was said to me here in my chest.

What was told the Cypress that made it strong
and straight, what was

whispered the jasmine so it is what it is, whatever made
sugarcane sweet, whatever

was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in
Turkestan that makes them

so handsome, whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush
like a human face, that is

being said to me now. I blush. Whatever put eloquence in
language, that’s happening here.

The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,

in love with the one to whom every that belongs!

Poem by Rumi, a 13th c. Persian Muslim poet, theologian, and Sufi mystic
Translation by Coleman Barks

Blessings this Good Friday. This poem was written by Rosemary Blake, a poet who was studying theology at the same time I was at Regis College in Toronto. She is from Australia and now lives in Toronto, Canada. One Good Friday, Rosemary gave us this poem which I have treasured. It’s now published in her book of poetry, Wintering.

Good Friday

Always I remember in Easter Week
the sudden storms; the dark
on Friday after church, as if the weather
had been specially arranged.

Summer was over and autumn
with its random dry winds
was beginning.
You could feel the warm soil
and parched grass close.

But after the service,
after the cool stone quiet of the aisles,
you were always astonished
by the way the storms came
dark and sudden from the northwest,
startling the paddocks

As though a figure on the rough beams
really hung there.

~ Rosemary Blake in Wintering

One of my nuns sent me this poem, and I find it very thought-provoking. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

"On the Edge" by KarenBeth1989

There is a grace approaching
that we shun as much as death,
it is the completion of our birth.

It does not come in time,
but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember.

It is an insistent grace that draws us
to the edge and beckons us to surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.

We know we must pass
beyond knowing
and fear the shedding.

But we are pulled upward
none-the-less
through forgotten ghosts
and unexpected angels,
luminous.

And there is nothing left to say
but we are That.

And that is what we sing about.

~ “Millennium Blessing” by Stephen Levine in Breaking the Drought: Visions of Grace

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Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

Last night I went to my nephew Jared’s choral recital. Jared performed last night at the Winter Vocal Concert Program as part of a Middle School Choir. He did so good and I am very proud of him. Both sets of grandparents were there along with his parents (my sister and bro-in-law) and his younger brother Lucas (my date for the evening).

Among the songs performed was “Where Your Barefoot Walks”, a setting by David N. Childs that is composed of three poems by the 13 century Sufi mystic Rumi. The poems can be found in The Soul of Rumi. Listen to this song — amazing. Here’s a link I found on YouTube of another choir performing it.

The words …

I want to be where your barefoot walks:
Because, maybe before you step you’ll look at the ground.
I want that blessing.

I open and fill with love,
I open and fill with love and all other objects evaporate.

All the learning in books stays hid on the shelf.
Poetry, the dear words and images of song,
Comes down over me like water.

This is how I would die. Into the love I have for you.
As pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight.

Happy Nunday! Hot of the press is a photo and article about Sister Anne Higgins, DC, a Daughter of Charity. Sister Anne is a Catholic sister and a poet! Check out her blog of poetry at Scattered Showers in a Clear Sky. A link to her blog can also be found in our director of Blogs by Catholic Nuns.

Sister Anne was recently featured in The Frederick News-Post in the article Mount teacher’s poetry writing talent is a gift, not a compulsion by Marge Neal (October 04, 2009). Here’s a clip from the article and, of course, a photo of Sister Anne:

The Mount St. Mary’s University teacher leads classes in English, theology and poetry. As a member of the Daughters of Charity, she lives her faith on a daily basis. As a teacher at a Catholic university, she gets to share that faith with her students while getting them excited about the written word, another passion of hers.

“I’ve been writing my whole life,” Higgins said Thursday. “I probably started writing poems in fourth grade, just regular little rhyming poems.”

Sister Anne Higgins, DC; photo by Graham Cullen

Sister Anne’s fourth book of poetry, “How the Hand Behaves,” is set to be published Nov. 8 [Note: Correction to article: publish date = Nov. 30; also, hyperlinks mine]

It’s the season of Easter and Spring is nearly here. The flower buds are popping through the ground, and the air, though chilled, gives hints of warmth and sun!

“This I saw on an April day:
Warm rain spilt from a sun-lined cloud,
A sky-flung wave of gold at evening,
And a cock pheasant treading a dusty path
Shy and proud.

And this I found in an April field:
A new white calf in the sun at noon,
A flash of blue in a cool moss bank,
And tips of tulips promising flowers
To a blue-winged loon.”

~ by James Hearst, In April

What will or has Easter and Spring brought for you?

Be like the bird that,
passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight,
feels them give way beneath her,
and yet sings,
knowing that she hath wings.

~ Victor Hugo

What causes you to sing,
even when the bough beneath you feels like it is giving way?

At long last I am returning to a book about Saint Teresa of Avila that I picked up last year. It’s called Interior Castle Explored: St. Teresa’s Teaching on the Life of Deep Union With God by Sister Ruth Burrows, OCD, a Carmelite nun in Norfolk. I am a big fan of both Teresa’s and Sister Ruth’s writings. But I don’t always take the time that I need to do some spiritual reading. So I took out the book again and started reading it again from the beginning.

In Chapter One, Sister Ruth quotes a poem by Nikos Kazantzakis, a Cretan poet whose birthday, coincidentally, is today. Sister Ruth writes, “I do not know his beliefs but, as it stands, the poem wonderfully expresses what I believe.”

Blowing through the heaven and earth, and in our hearts and in the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath — a great Cry — which we call God. Plant life wished to continue its motionless sleep next to stagnant waters, but the Cry leaped up within it and violently shook its roots: ‘Away, let go of the earth, walk!’ Had the tree been able to think and judge, it would have cried, ‘I don’t want to. What are you urging me to do? You are demanding the impossible!’

But the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, ‘Away! Let go of the earth, walk!’

It shouted in this way for thousands of eons; and lo, as a result of desire and struggle, life escaped the motionless tree and was liberated….

The poem continues, but my reflections remained with this first part. How timely it is in my own life as well as in the life of the Church as we approach the wonderful season of Lent!

Some thoughts …

• What is the great Cry that I hear in my own life?
• What might God be asking me to let go of?
• In what ways am I tethered by roots that keep me from letting go and walking free?
• Is there something that I’ve been putting off for “thousands of eons”, thinking it impossible, that actually is possible?

Today is the feast day of Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). Teresa is a Doctor of the Church, a major Catholic reformer (particularly in the Carmelite order), a mystic and writer. She is also one of the patron saints of the IHM Congregation.

Teresa was a woman of prayer and continues to teach many people in and outside of the Church how to grow in prayer and one’s relationship with God.

Here is one of my favorite writings of Teresa (Poetry, 386).

Nada te turbe Let nothing trouble you,
Nada te espante, Let nothing scare you,
Toda se pasa, All is fleeting,
Dios no se muda, God alone is unchanging.
La Paciencia Patience
Todo la alcanza; Everything obtains.
Quien a Dios tiene Who possesses God
Nada le falta. Nothing wants.
Sólo Dios basta. God alone suffices.