To One Hesitant

From my friend, Emmaberry, a fellow PCC-to-be! Not sure as her post didn't say, but this maybe one of Mother Mary Francis, PCC's poems below:

To One Hesitant

"The Sisters fast every day except on Sundays and Christmas, never eat meat, rise at midnight for prayer and meditation, wear a coarse habit, and always go barefoot."

                                From: Explanation of the Rule of St. Clare

You wonder

at survival through death-bleached hours,

sere plains, incommiserate sands.

And you are afraid.

Oh! leave those timorous chains

that bind you

in the dark dungeon of age-old compromise!

Unchained, your heart shall dare

these sands unfearing

and oh! a thousand times

will almost find the reason

just there between the sunlight and the silence.

There will be

the sudden leap of longing

in the soul pregnant with faith and hope,

arms outflung without any willing,

singing pain in the heart,

words splintering helplessly,

the whole sky unslung,

star-desolate, moon-empty,

the rumor of Him quivering everywhere.

And when this flash of the reason

is gone

out of hand's grasp,

heart's reach,

furious will's shouting,

the sands will blaze

with gorgeous recall

and plains go quick-cool

beneath the feet.

Recall indeed will fade

but then perhaps

there will be another moment

rocketed out of eternity,

out of reality,

runaway, splendid, sustaining,

when you will almost hold Him

and your hands almost grasp

the reason.

These are the moments

that make for survival;

and one will not end,

being death.