The Wednesday Poem: 'Eucharist'

May 29, 2016

Eucharist

I am going now to the mystery
To the holy place of God’s meeting
To the table of his life
To the unfathomable courtesy of God.

Friends around me in the holy place
Word dropping dew
Manna to feed the raging hunger of my soul.
To satisfy the insatiable
To fill the aching abyss
To heal the unhealable
To make me live.

Son of God, what madness moves you
To tear and rend yourself
On the cross, in the bread?
To bend and degrade yourself
Like crumbs thrown to dogs?
To become me –
Subject to my foolishness or wickedness
To become mean, with my selfishness
To let me be You?
To disfigure your beauty?
Here at the table
You nourish and call me
To be you in your world.

Christ, my life’s brightness,
Make me a little worthy of your trust
Let my shrivelled heart love you a little
Make it bloom in your graciousness
And flower in your presence.

Have mercy on me, Jesus
When I come to Your Supper
Fulfil me.

I’m offering you this poem because we have just celebrated Corpus Christi and June is the month of Eucharist.

The poem comes from a private collection by Sr Nora Wall, which she had printed some years ago. Nora is one of our well-loved Mercy sisters in Limerick. Known long ago as Sr Laboure, she was a woman of many gifts. She monitored the establishment of new second level schools in the Limerick diocese and acted as manager and Principal in a number of these schools for over 28 years. Always a woman of action, her talents were frequently put to use in leadership roles. But secretly also, she was quite a good painter in oils and a poet.

As she said herself , her poems were everywhere, but some good friends helped her to bring a number of them together in a printed collection: Times and Seasons, Poems by Sr Nora Wall. This is quite a lovely collection. The poems draw upon her early life in Dromcolliher and her visits back there with family. They reflect her love for history and Ireland in all its moods and changes. And they also reflect the deep spirituality that sustained this active woman who always responded generously to what was asked of her and ‘got things done’.

I particularly llke the poem, Eucharist. I will not comment on it because it speaks for itself. Something about it expresses Nora’s indefatigable spirit. Now in her nineties and using a walking aid to get around, I see her there before me each morning at Mass. The first line, 'I’m going now to the mystery. . . ‘ says it all.

Messages to: Sr Nora Wall c/- Jo O'Donovan rsm

Poetry commentary by Sr Jo previously published on mercyworld.org:

* Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins sj
*Travelling through the Dark by William Stafford
* 'Men Go To God' by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
* 'Advent' by Patrick Kavanagh
* 'This Above All is Precious and Remarkable' by John Wain
* 'Spring and Fall: To a Young Child' by Gerard Manley Hopkins sj