Each of them – alone
Cowering together in an upper room
Full of memories, emptied of hope
Each snarling smugly at women’s talk
Of dazzling angels and an empty tomb
Each believing only in their own unbelief
Each clinging to the other
As sheets to a fevered corpse gone cold
Eleven dead men less one buried
And still – He comes
“Peace Be With You!”
Wounded hands and wounded feet
A pierced heart but not a barb at unbelief
“Peace Be With You!”
His gift balm soothing blistered souls
Each knows themself – forgiven
He breathes on them, frees these captives
Sends them out into the lighted night
Each of them – together
—J. Michael Sparough, SJ is a retreat director, playwright, and poet at the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House, Barrington, IL
Please share the Good Word with your friends!
St. Ignatius’s First Principle and Foundation says “The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God's life to flow into us without limit.” One of the ways in which we respond to the love God has given us is through prayer, not only personal prayer but community prayer as well.
The Pastoral Ministry Center invites members of our Strake Jesuit Community to share their prayers with us: their concerns, joys, thanksgivings, so that we may walk with them in all these times of their lives.
Submit a Prayer Request
Each of them – alone
Cowering together in an upper room
Full of memories, emptied of hope
Each snarling smugly at women’s talk
Of dazzling angels and an empty tomb
Each believing only in their own unbelief
Each clinging to the other
As sheets to a fevered corpse gone cold
Eleven dead men less one buried
And still – He comes
“Peace Be With You!”
Wounded hands and wounded feet
A pierced heart but not a barb at unbelief
“Peace Be With You!”
His gift balm soothing blistered souls
Each knows themself – forgiven
He breathes on them, frees these captives
Sends them out into the lighted night
Each of them – together
—J. Michael Sparough, SJ is a retreat director, playwright, and poet at the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House, Barrington, IL
Please share the Good Word with your friends!
