Seven Glorious Mysteries

Resurrection
A singularity of silence speaks
astonishing in strength, exuberant
and riant till the distant morning peaks
are smiling with a sudden joke; and buoyant
fiery clouds are cheery, cherry red.
They peel away the brooding mourning sky
to show the throne of majesty outspread,
nor do the waters of the rivers shy
to splash and spray their joy this festive day.
Beyond all hope, beyond our fantasies
beyond the fondest force that might display
some careless acts of generosity
the one who suffered death now lives again;
behold the empty tomb where he has been.


The Ascension
Behold the empty tomb where he has been,
and notice, if you will, the vacant sky;
you need not stand there looking up, for when
he comes again you’ll know it. By the by,
get moving now. Go up into the town
and breathe, just breathe. You understand
the dignity which wore a briar crown
now shepherds all the earth, and his command
is gentle. Do not be afraid. So good
is God. Retreat into the upper room,
your holy cenacle and wait. You should
prefer your ignorance, and not assume
you know what you must do. There’ll come a day
when -- unexpectedly -- you see your way.

Pentecost
When -- unexpectedly -- you see your way,
your heart has found its rhythm and your breath
can pause and linger with each moment of the day,
when life is neither long nor short, and death
no longer frightens or dismays, you find
an openness to whatever comes.
Still reeling at events, they could not pine
for yesterday, but gathered all the crumbs
of memories and miracles to save
them for they knew not what. The air
was still around them, silence reigned as waves
of longing ebbed and flowed; and then their prayer
became a Spirit filled with brilliant fire
enflaming all the earth with God’s desire.


The Assumption of Mary
Enflaming all the earth with God’s desire
his mother spent her life in Galilee
receiving those who wanted to retire
in quiet for awhile. They had to be
alone with her whose early willingness
to hear the word of God and keep it safe
had borne such fruit. In Mary came to rest
a spirit wild, whose searing often chafed
the human heart. She made him one of us,
and in her house the wildest spirits turned
to gentleness. The sacred woman’s just
reward would not await her son’s return;
for by the Lord’s command and saints’ advice
the angels raptured her to paradise.


The Coronation of Mary
The angels rapture her to paradise,
and fire with air and watered earth atone;
the universe that saw her pay the price
now stands in awe before her starry throne.
God’s sacrifice of Calvary required
a mortal human complement, someone
who was not God yet utterly inspired
to give herself and more, her first born son.
The shackled earth once deeply mired in sin
now echoes saints and angel harmony,
it sings of her whose role as heroine
gave comfort to divine nativity.
So her apotheosis now complete,
The winds shall separate the chaff from wheat.


Judgment Day
The winds shall separate the chaff from wheat
as trumpets sound the coming of the Day.
The meek and poor of earth will stand to greet
The victor with his crown of thorns. They’ll say
“We shared our gifts with him, the few we had,
our anxious faith, and soiled love, our tremb-
ing hope, the stored up wealth of sad
long years. We brought them all to Bethlehem –
and Calvary. Who could expect this grace
appearing to us now? The wealthy too
will hail his justice as his broken mace
adjudicates atoning peace. Renewed
in all her cycling seasons Earth shall kiss
in ecstasy the consort of her bliss.


Bliss
In ecstasy the consort of her bliss
delights to draw his love. Their plunging falls
abandoned into grace and deeper grace
as each surrenders all control. She calls
him to behold her blemished purity
and he bedazzles her with open wounds.
They gleam like jewels. An endless treasury
From insects small to galaxies festooned
with radiance astonishes the soul;
and then exhausted, she withdraws to find
her body’s natural rhythms healed and whole.
Her nights and days, her gifts of heart and mind
are all restored. And when for more she seeks
A singularity of silence speaks.