Poetry by our Sister Sheila Reilly, IHM

Life Eternal
(On reading John S. Donne’s poem, “Life Eternal”)

I reach for the beyond, for “life after life,”
And though I want it with all my heart,
Letting go is more difficult
than one can comprehend.

There are still words to be uttered,
songs to be sung,
deeds to be done.
The next century beckons
With promise of things undreamed
By one whose life God wills for now.

To reach the brightness of yon horizon
I would live forever.
And, wonder of it all, I shall!
For God waits there
to make me young again.

On Becoming Being

I image what I am becoming
As droplet suspended in a cloud
being drawn to unity by Brother Sun.
I struggle mightily to retain the
boundaries of self.
Relinquishing would of a certainly mean
annihilation
Do I have to give up being to become Being?

Reassured by ______Ward
that to have life I must give
up life
I renounce resistance.
Now I fall into my Source
And in that shoreless ocean
Find the bliss of coming home
to what was e’er my destination
Yea, Lord, I drown in Divinity.

Detachment

Jesus, I would learn the art of pruning.
Teach me the wisdom of the shears.
Give insight, Lord for the discerning
Of willful branch and sapping tendril.
Ripe for the cutting, ready for the flame.

Bestow, O Master Gardener, courage
For excising though in spite of tears
Help me to enhance the weighted ________
Which rain and sun and tender care
Would make of this the best of years

Dear Jesus, would that I be readied for the press.
Help me trim each useless lead and branch
Guide the blades to grapes too early ripe for sweetness.
When I must shear cruelly, let it be with caution
Till what remains will make for you a perfect wine.

On Our Dyings

To die, in the bard’s words,
Is a consummation devoutly to the
But to live, to grasp the grace
Of added day,
TO hold enpalmed the gift of moments
Silvered by the brush of Will Diving:
This must bring one
To undreamed fulfillment.

Let me due, O my Lover,
To all the trinkets that to my garments cling.
Let me find new life
Each time I am bereft.
On all my dyings
Be they great or small
Shed your love, Lord. Help me
Return to you your gift – my all.

On Being Born Again

Rebirth was both revisited
Trauma greeted op’ning of one’s eyes
Senses slow, reluctant to awareness
To a world one cheerfully would renounce.
Could it be a good, be God-willed
Taking up the pilgrim’s tired once more
Facing into further bouts with longing
For union with one’s

The bird I watch outside my window
Is there for you alone, my God.
Perched precariously
She rides on swaying pine branch
Brownly visible, her back deep made
Of whitest cloud.

Is it Spirit’s breath that shakes the bow?
And why this branch – no other?
Happy she where God wills her now
She praises you with play.
Indeed she has no need of mate or brother.

When will _____ and friendly when
Feeling inner urge
Desert this limb and moving upward
Come to rest on other God-intentioned heights?
If she be there for only You, my Lord,
T’will be God’s timing makes it right.

Presence

“God is so alive in you.”

How does one touch bottom
in a shoreless ocean of depth infinity?
No, my dearest friend, you could not know
what mystery your words struggle to convey.
That Being in Whom I am immersed
could be unveiled to human eye,
has been declared off-limits by Being
Herself.

So what it is your wisdom has discerned
is but a pinpoint of reflection.
Mercy has concealed the blinding light.
Truly, “eye has not seen” nor will it,
Till scales removed and perfect vision yours,
you gaze at God Herself, not pale reflection.

Springtime Noel

Morning sky bespoke December
all lowering and gray
It was only in the tepid rain
that one could image May.
As if to mock the darkness
each needled branch of pine
has spouted tiny candles.
Truly God had readied them for Christmas.

Would also there be snow
to whiten sodden green?
Yes, a blanked has been spread
neath blooming cherry tree.
As nature plays along
the addled senses to deceive,
surely humans pause to ponder:
What trick is this that
calls for carols?

Lo! Magic of late afternoon
brings sunshine breaking through
and candles now are brought to flame.
Each pointed skyward, straight and bright,
declares the glory of the season.
And what of snowfall?
Gently it continues in the breeze.
Petals drifting and proclaiming:
It is May!

Vulnerability

Being deprived of any sense
Is indeed great hardship;
An intensification of one’s
sense of preparation.

It sets limits on the ability
to lead and on the power
to follow.
One can’t be part of the group
one can’t hear.
A blind person gropes along the
way another trips so blithely.
Crutches are both helpand hazard.

Easter Evening

Shadows starting east and west
proclaim another dying Paschal tide
But wasn’t death defeated?
And did not Jesus triumph to arise?
That’s the mystery left to us
where future ________ __________
Ah, but out Life and Love
could see what has ______
And we could trust His promise
Could rely that He had paid the way.
For __ to go unbounded
__________ ______________
unto a _______
for which he died
to face a future beyond today

When they had come to land
What was it that was left behind?
O more than nets and boats
____ fish piled high on lakeside’s shore
T’was _____ _____, T’was family
The mother-in-law who served
But most of all _______ and ________

For one who would disciple be
What is the cost of following?
Cast aside in Simon’s wake.
________ __________ like the nets and lines
______ by the water’s edge
future-faced one makes one’s way.
Conversation, even to transformation
is the goal.
No, Lord, do not depart
Stay to lead me out of sinfulness
Stay to make my occupation
______ of my kingdom order.

Membership

In the words of our Constitutions: We have

But rebirth glimpse, the transcendent
We’re _______ into gift of second chance
Each day surprises us at dawning
In loving challenge e’er to choose the new
So how can one continue being ______
Because the  treasure’s plenty easy to grasp
No, better does one seize each invitation
And celebrate with Being the last.

Down through ages of remembered history
The record of our disbelief
is _____
Sarah humorously doubted
Elizabeth surely must have questioned
Zachary lost the power of speech

Changes he desires: “We with
our uncoiled faces reflecting like
mirrors the brightness of the Lord,
all grow brighter and brighter as
we are turned unto the image that
we reflect; this is the work of the
Lord who is Spirit.” (2 Cor 3 _18)

_______ tape- we pray for patience –
for faith, for compassion – there is
only one gift – the Holy Spirit ( love of
Father for Son and Son for the Father)
so I don’t know what to pray for.
God made me and loves me so
he will give me what will make
me happy. I may think I know
what will make me happy but
he knows and will give me that
which will make me happy.

God the Father, Son and Spirit
dwells within me so I am never alone.

Way to Change your life

Reflection under power of Spirit

15 min. before you go to bed

as you go to bed you get up.

go to bed healed – He will be at 1^st moment in morning Lord of your life.
-Sleep-going into the tomb
He frees us of Lazaru’s _________
We are healed only when we know
there is something wrong

are we blind – see tries or men
as they are-

Holy _____ – icon, candle
God here in a special way
Act of faith – adore God ______ and  without.

1. Praise God – thank __________, life – a woman – and American – my parents – for this day only-three squares – people- incarnations of his beauty – those who have influenced us – the Eucharist -that ache- that frustration -my blah character – thank him

2. Pray for the release of the Holy Spirit- who alone can reveal to me how word of God spoke to me today-expanding consciousness to become more and more aware of God today than I was yesterday

3. Instant Replay
My day-awoke-did I praise God in middle of night – when I awoke in morning – _____ day- each person encountering place with God- pain, aches, disappointments, ask for  _______ for therein lies growth in faith and patience

4. Healing – expose all raw edges – experiences that have left us unhealed- I have seen your goodness and now I see my poverty – my ______________ response to your great goodness – I am the greatest sinner – no one was loved like me – no one has responded in same way omission – the lost opportunities to be loving
-don’t prize self like Pharisee
-I’m not like that slob
-aren’t you glad I love you.

The closed we come to God the more sinful we see ourselves.
our own brokenness

I beg God to touch those against whom I may have done something wrong – forgive anyone who had hurt me- go to sleep healed so that I can emerge healed from tomb.

5. Look quietly on road ahead tomorrow – prepare raw stuff so it will be oriented toward God – ask Christ to be there present – in joyful moments – in difficult encounters

– reflective living in touch with Spirit
-makes you charismatic

Touch of a Spark

The spiritual canticle, St. John of the Cross- Stanza 25

Wonder-filled and inspiring sight
A spark can kindle to a flame!
As burning desert can attest
Tindered brush fanned ablaze by winds hot breath
Becomes before one’s eyes a conflagration.

Dear Fray John, you image for my soul
A fire of love enkindled by a spark.
Pray my God to send a hearty Spirit – wind
To whip into a flaming love
The subtly given accident, her gift, the spark.

A Rose Full Blown

There is a special thing
About a rose full blown:
Wide in welcome to His Will
Aroma – cased in a giftedness of grace.
Here is readiness to yield the secret
Long folded in shy bud beauty.
Revealed now midst unfurled petals
Lies the treasure that gives meaning to it all.
Your presence, Lord, (is) at the heart.

To be able with n’ear a thought of sacrifice
To yield the place of favor to another.
To know compassion with no reference to self
To be presence for a sister or a brother.

You came into the star-lit silence of that night
And now things can never be the same
For it will take millennium upon millennium