A Lenten Reflection ~ 29
Count nine months back from Christmas day and you arrive at March 25th and the Feast of the Annunciation, because as all expectant mother’s know, a pregnancy is no more and no less than 9 months. Exactly. Well, maybe not. But that’s how it works in the liturgical calendar. Each year, on March 25th we take a pause in the midst of the season of Lent and recall with amazement, Mary’s fiat — “Let it be,” she says to the messenger Gabriel, “according to your word.” The immensity and intensity of her courage is in direct proportion to her capacity to trust and her willingness to surrender her want and will. Here is a poem for lectio and for the day by Marie Howe.
“Annunciation”
Marie Howe
Even if I don’t see it again—nor ever feel it
I know it is—and that if once it hailed me
it ever does—
And so it is myself I want to turn in that direction
not as towards a place, but it was a tilting
within myself,
as one turns a mirror to flash the light to where
it isn’t—I was blinded like that—and swam
in what shone at me
only able to endure it by being no one and so
specifically myself I thought I’d die
from being loved like that.
I know it is—and that if once it hailed me
it ever does—
And so it is myself I want to turn in that direction
not as towards a place, but it was a tilting
within myself,
as one turns a mirror to flash the light to where
it isn’t—I was blinded like that—and swam
in what shone at me
only able to endure it by being no one and so
specifically myself I thought I’d die
from being loved like that.
♦ ♦ ♦
from The Kingdom of Ordinary Time, 2008.
Thank You
thanks, Dan. Great poem.
these words arranged this way shine warm light into me in a shadow time and I am feeling joy!!! thanks, Dan.