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POETRY
Issue Date:  March 26, 2004

POETRY

Magnificat

What if I am wonderfully made,
         not just a cosmic coin toss
            one out of two, with a slight nod to the boys,
but created with sacred mindfulness and rhyme and reason?
What if, after you’ve searched me,
         You have not found me lacking and the me-ness
     of who I am,
   my real presence,
is stunningly alive and beautiful beyond my wildest
dreams?
What if my darkness is not dark,
   but
   an opening into the light, night shining into day,
in communion, one, like us.
What if You have created every part of me --
         such a job well done that you would watch and wait
as I took shape
         and then when I became broken you would dare to
come in
   to my broken-home of a heart?
And if I cannot hide --
         nowhere to go but fly to sunrises, or mountains or
valleys or deserts --
   and you relentlessly nip at my heels and nag at my weary
self,
   sleeping to the wonder of it all,
   then where can I run?
What were you thinking when you read my thoughts or
when you closed in on me --
         in hot pursuit of one so overwhelmed as I?
Too much to understand,
         I relinquish -- for now at least --
the rhyme and the reason of it all,
         and settle into the hidden depths:
You are there.

-- Marian Monahan
Suwanee, Ga.

National Catholic Reporter, March 26, 2004

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