April 20, 2012

My Journey to God

Peace

“Peace I leave with you;
My peace I give you;
Not as the world gives do I give to you.
Let not your hearts be troubled
Neither let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27).

I am only one soul
Yet I hold a thousand stories
Like a weeping willow

Sweeping low to catch and lift
Life’s tales like cascading waterfalls
Dancing in the light.

Twisting and dipping
Rising and curling
Gathering and listening Love

Echoing to self
The life of a million songs
Caught on my tongue like raindrops

All that gives joy to existence.

The world
Gives in chaos
But Love
Gives so simply.

And my only fear
Is that I might squander this
Love
Hope
Peace
Opportunity
Gifts to create and rejoice.

Ruminating over the
Horrors of living …

I have made close
Acquaintance with death,
Abandonment, violence, deceit.

And still, when I sit
In the quiet
With aches in my bones
And hearts all around me
Echoing pain

I find strange peace
In being a willow

My face to the sky
In effortless
Offering.

Burdens lifting
Like feathers

Drawn into the
Heart of the Source
That sustains me

Not in false idols
Cast in impermanence

But in Love
Mercy, Hope, Joy
Peace that says to all:

“Rise, let us go hence.”

By Angela Roesler

(Angela Roesler is a member of St. Christopher Parish in Indianapolis. She works for the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis at the Oldenburg Franciscan Center in Oldenburg.) †

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