TOTAL VIRGIN
“She was a virgin even of herself.” – Père
Francoise OCD
In
a house of mirrors that coveted her image
she
never walked
with
her own beauty
nor
made a feast of her goodness,
inviting
friends from the far and wide.
She
never sat down with her own innocence
to
dialogue together,
nor
called a stranger in
to
sit at her hearth and be glorified.
She
was a maiden promised to one lover
whom
she was always seeking.
Though
he hid in her heartbeat and settled himself
behind
her breath,
he
was distance, too. Journeys dwindled to
places
beside
her own, and miles melted beneath
her
steps of wanting. She could by-pass all
meadows
that trap us with their poisonous flowers
and
their soliciting pools
and
winding lanes that skirt the only death.
She
was out on a road alone, hastening onward,
gathering all as a gift, the small and great
fragments
of mystery and reality.
Everything
was for Him, even her own being.
Since
love marks neither measurement nor weight
she
carried all, without touching or tasting.
Life,
which comes as a virgin to us all,
most
safely came to her.
Time,
when she passed, remained inviolate.
(1976;
1984)
Jessica Powers (Sister Miriam of the
Holy Spirit OCD)
From: The Selected Poetry of Jessica
Powers. Page 57.
Published by ICS Publications,
Washingon DC.
All copyrights, Carmelite Monastery,
Milwaukee, WI.
Used with permission.
