Lent Day 16

Day 16: Jessica Powers

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Jessica Powers: Repairer of fences

I am alone in the dark, and I am thinking
what darkness would be mine if I could see
the ruin I wrought in every place I wandered
and if I could not be
aware of One who follows after me.
Whom do I love, O God, when I love Thee?
The great Undoer who has torn apart
the walls I built against a human heart,
the Mender who has sewn together the hedges
through which I broke when I went seeking ill,
the Love who follows and forgives me still.
Fumbler and fool that I am, with things around me
Of fragile make like souls, how I am blessed
To hear behind me footsteps of a Savior!
I sing to the east; I sing to the west:
God is my repairer of fences, turning my paths into rest.

(A Retreat with Jessica Powers: Loving a Passionate God, St. Anthony Messenger Press)

Powers (1905–1988) was a Carmelite nun and a poet in Wisconsin.