Prayer

by Jeffrey Essmann | February 5, 2025 1:00 am

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This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by Johanna Caton, O.S.B.

Prayer

O Holy One, you needn’t come in full array, a Holy Blaze.
Come any way or weight or size; come little, bright— come

tiny sparrow-spirit—quickly, sprint! Spirit me! Or sprinkle
all around like salt, or be all soft and spread yourself, come

sharp and spear; come, slice through lying words, unfurl,
make dizzy, whirl for our perplexed, imperiled, proud,

proud world. Spin strands for your sweet nest and rest,
nestle, abide. Or crawl, six-legged, and nibble through

the gnarled mind-shell that is mine. Steady careening me,
small saviors and big, do what you will, pull, peel, hoist,

wring, fling or brood. Run like a river, spark like fireflies.
Or, better, walk in simply, as a man who can weep and die.

Originally published in Today’s American Catholic.

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Johanna Caton, O.S.B., is a Benedictine nun from Minster Abbey in Kent, England. Born in Virginia, she lived in the United States until adulthood, when her monastic vocation took her to England. She writes poetry as a means of understanding the work of God in her life, whose purposes and presence can be elusive until viewed through the more accommodating lens of art and poetry. Her poetry has appeared or will appear in Green Hills Literary Lantern, Time of Singing Christian Poetry Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, The Christian Century, Amethyst Review and other venues. She is a 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee.

Source URL: https://integratedcatholiclife.org/2025/02/catholic-poetry-prayer/

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