LET IT aLL sTART hERE
For Catholics who care...
Several families at Sacred Heart Parish have donated vestments for our pastor's use at Mass in honor of a family member or friend. They are quite lovely, each in their unique way. I have written this poem as a prelude for a future blog that will explain what your priest is wearing and why it is significant to our Catholic faith.
Chasuble Who will care for the monk? The one gone blind and lame stitching eternity into the pattern of red brocade worn like armor on the chest. Who will release his claw-- gnarled flesh & horn nail from the needle plated in gold? Who will kiss & open his fingers? Who will recognize his poverty, his penitence, his posture? Who will remember the murmur of: O clemens, o pia, o dulcis… Virgo Maria rising in his throat? Rising up and out to flutter-- flutter against the garden wall. I will. I will and he will reward me: Sew me into the labyrinth of his design to wander safely there to live inside the white space, pure as parchment, plain as paraffin, pristine as my soul can only hope to be after it is tempered of desire, soothed of despair tamed and no longer terrified. And what of the monk when he is finished and his needle and silk thread forgotten? Perhaps he will join me there. By: Evelyn Augusto January 2015
9 Comments
Jackie White
2/5/2015 09:50:29 am
Evelyn,
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Charlene Caramore
2/6/2015 04:22:57 am
What a beautiful poem! It really draws us to that vision of the monk working the seeds of his faith into the cloth, painstakingly plying his God-given talent into this much beloved vestment. And it also brought to my mind the elegant yet simple vestments that were donated when my nephew died, a handsome, broken young man who went into the Army and came out a different person. I never knew that people did this in memory of someone who has passed away but there it was in the funeral parlor--pristine white, elegant, holy--as I pray the soul of Michael is now. Someone made that vestment for the love of Christ and His church. Your poem jarred me to remember that I should pray for him or her, whoever it may have been as well as for the repose of the soul of my nephew. Thank you.
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jackie White
2/6/2015 06:02:31 am
Charlene,
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Charlene Caramore
2/15/2015 09:32:32 am
Thank you so much, Jackie. He was a beautiful boy and I'm sure is even moreso now that he's with the Lord. I truly believe that through God's mercy, he is in Heaven despite all of his problems. Anyway, I pray that it is so and he is at peace. God Bless You.
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Dennis
2/14/2015 02:56:36 am
Titled: The Way
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Cathie Weredyk
2/25/2015 03:37:26 am
Beautiful poem Evelyn, you are truly blessed with many talents!
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