Religious verses

Choir's summer break -
melodies and harmonies
scattered through the church
 
fingering my beads
beneath the haloed street lights
October thirteenth

St. Rose of Lima’s
recipe for vanity –
add some pepper 

 

Fatima shrine -
bullfrogs keep vigil
in Rosary pool

Ash Wednesday –
the check-out girl
wipes her forehead

mother's rosary -
threads still hold
where links had broken

A priest
silently prays
in the back of the church,
and just then, somewhere, someone's soul
is stirred.

Abbey chapel –
monks celebrate Mass
as crickets chant

Summer thunderstorm -
Franciscan chapel shelters
Brother Bee and me

 

Blessed
now Solanus
Casey, holy doorman,
may you inspire us always to
give thanks.

San Damiano

"'One day in the church of St.
Damian, he (St. Francis) hears
words spoken from the Crucifix:
'Go, Francis, and repair my
house; as you can see, it is
falling into ruin.'''
Fr. Stanislaus Majarelli, OFM
The roses are in bloom at San Damiano.
Their scent bleeds into the air,
flows down from the hills,
floods the streets of Assisi
like the beggars who cry,
``Bread and stones,
bread and stones.''

In the shadowy cafe,
men sit
hearing the calls.
One man spits and mutters a curse.
Another man begins a bawdy song
that pours out
into the darkening air.

At midnight: Silence.
Fog shrouds the streets
and snakes into the hills.

The hills rise above the fog
like islands in a dead sea.
And taller still
rises
San Damiano's half-built steeple
reaching toward
heaven.

 

Pax et bonum