March 29: A Good Friday Poem, Madeleine L'Engle, "Mary Speaks:"

I have a poem for my disciples tonight from the writer Madeleine L'Engle.  It's from her collection A Cry Like a Bell which I reviewed several weeks ago in a post.  I find this poem particularly moving because it focuses on Mary and her part in the Jesus narrative.

I'm currently in between Good Friday services.  In a few hours I'll be heading off to the Episcopal church.  I'm looking forward to this one a little more.  The way the Passion is read during tonight's worship is particularly effecting.

Saint Marty is a sucker for a crucifixion story.

Mary Speaks:

O you who bear the pain of the whole earth,
     I bore you.
O you whose tears give human tears their worth,
     I laughed with you.
You, who, when your hem is touched, give power,
     I nourished you.
Who turn the day to night in this dark hour,
     light comes from you.
O you who hold the world in your embrace,
     I carried you.
Whose arms encircled the world with your grace,
     I once held you.
O you who laughed and ate and walked the shore,
     I played with you.
And I, who with all others, you died for,
     now I hold you.

May I be faithful to this final test:
in this last time I hold my child, my son,
his body close enfolded to my breast,
the holder held:  the bearer borne.
Mourning to joy:  darkness to morn.
Open, my arms:  your work is done.,