Convents are no different! Or are they? A poem-prayer for my sister ... and for me ... and for all who doubt

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a poem-prayer for my sister ... and for me ... and for all who doubt



Convents are no different! Or are they?


Any situation where human beings come to live or work together involves rules and conventions, often informal and unwritten, that somehow make the act of being together work to a greater or lesser extent.

Think of those places familiar to you: communal rooms in your apartment or house shared with friends or family, a staff room, the office kitchen, university library, the factory floor, public bathrooms, doctors’ waiting rooms, public transport. Even lifts and escalators have unwritten codes of etiquette. Have you ever dared to face the ‘wrong way’ in a lift?

Now, think of those instances where these informal conventions are broken. 
I’m minded of those online threads filled with photos of passive aggressive post-it notes. 
These are amusing because they resonate with our experience of negotiating those spaces we share with other people and the repercussions that can arise from doing so badly. 

But in real life, not all notes are humorous. Perhaps those of a less amusing nature conceal a deeper reality. Maybe sometimes, they can teach us something about compassion. 

This is where the convent enters the story headlined: 'Convents are no different. Or are they?'

Thinking some more about a conversation with a friend about the notes that can appear in convents (sometimes passive-aggressive in nature) and the emotional struggles that may lie underneath led me to a poem-prayer. It’s a prayer for having a heart for those underlying scars. It’s a prayer for compassion for the note left unwritten in the past of the note-writer’s life. 

It’s a prayer for that sister and for myself and for all who need to know the truth - or a truth about Truth. 
This truth about Truth is a vital truth. It is this: 
                                                 we are loved 
                                                                madly
                                                                insanely
                                                                through and through




Will the one who doubts
        her own
                    value,
                    belovedness,
                    unique beauty,
                    specialness
                            to God


        please
                please
        take note:


                you are loved
                            as you are
                                as you are, you are known
                                        as you are, you are loved


                you are God’s beloved


 




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