Thus says the LORD,

who opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters… See, I am doing something new!

Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

Isaiah 43: 16, 19

Dear Sisters, Associates and Companions, These words of Isaiah speak so eloquently of this moment in our Community and our world. They invite us to trust and challenge: trust in God’s guidance and action, challenge to open the eyes and ears of the heart, the organ of perception. As we anticipate our June Gathering, we let ourselves wonder how we might together, intentionally prepare our hearts for the conversations of the heart we are hoping for. It is in that spirit, that we offer this little collection of poems – one for each of nine days leading up to our Gathering. We have selected poems that touch on the many dimensions of our life as women and men of Mercy. Our hope is that we all might savor a poem each day, praying with it, walking with it, letting it refresh us in whatever way that will happen for each of us. We invite you to use them in any way that you feel drawn. You may want to share them with each other. You may want to simply hold them quietly in your heart. The reflection questions offered may be a doorway for inspiration, or your own heart’s response, will be exactly the nourishment needed. It is our deepest trust that if we each come to the Gathering (in person or in spirit) with the eyes and ears of our hearts open, we will perceive God’s “something new” now springing forth. Our prayer, in the words of e.e. cummings, is that we may all say together

now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened!

We are grateful to Sister Joan Marie O’Donnell and Associate Catherine Regan for their creative initiative in developing these materials. In anticipation of the 2012 Gathering,

Tuesday, June 12 (Day One)

A WALK

My eyes already touch the sunny hill, Going far ahead of the road I have begun.

So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp; it has its inner light, even from a distance –

and changes us, even if we do not reach it,

into something else, which, hardly sensing it, we already are:

a gesture waves us on, answering our own wave… but what we feel is the wind on our faces.

~ Rilke

Today: What does this poem evoke in me at this time in my Mercy journey? Do I have a sense of how I/we are becoming what we already are?

Wednesday, June 13 (Day Two)

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows. Each note is a need coming through one of us, a passion, a longing-pain. Remember the lips where the wind-breath originated, and let your note be clear. Don’t try to end it. Be your note. I’ll show you how it’s enough. Go up on the roof at night in this city of the soul. Let everyone climb on their roofs and sing their notes! Sing loud! ~ Rumi

Today: I pray to be in touch with the deepest desires of my heart—to listen to my unique “note” and to have the courage to sing it out.

Thursday, June 14 (Day Three)

I thank you God for most this amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes… (now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened) ~ e.e. cummings Today: Let me spend some time outdoors—really looking and listening, allowing something of the natural world into my heart. What awakens in me?

Friday, June 15 (Day Four)

IT FELT LOVE

How

Did the rose Ever open its heart

And give to this world

All its Beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light

Against its Being,

Otherwise,

We all remain

Too

Frightened

~ Hafiz

Today: What is a time in my Mercy experience when I felt opened by encouragement or when I offered encouragement? How might the Spirit be inviting me/us to nurture presence and new relationships in Mercy?

Saturday, June 16 (Day Five)

LEAD

Here is a story

to break your heart. Are you willing?

This winter the loons came to our harbor

and died, one by one, of nothing we could see.

A friend told me of one on the shore

that lifted its head and opened the elegant beak and cried out

in the long, sweet savoring of its life which, if you have heard it, you know is a sacred thing,

and for which, if you have not heard it, you had better hurry to where

they still sing… The next morning

this loon, speckled and iridescent and with a plan

to fly home to some hidden lake,

was dead on the shore. I tell you this

to break your heart, by which I mean only

that it break open and never close again to the rest of the world.

~ Mary Oliver

Today: May I allow my heart to be broken open to the suffering of the Earth and her creatures. How am I being called to a deeper Mercy response?

Sunday, June 17 (Day Six)

let it go – the smashed word broken

open vow or the oath cracked length

wise - let it go it was sworn to

go

let them go - the truthful liars and

the false fair friends and the boths and

neithers - you must let them go they were born

to go

let all go - the big small middling tall bigger really

the biggest and all things - let all go

dear

so comes love ~ e. e. cummings Today: Where in my life am I being called to let go? Where do I sense that love is wanting to break through?

Monday, June 18 (Day Seven)

PRAYING

It doesn't have to be

the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try to make them elaborate, this isn't

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.

~ Mary Oliver

Today: I choose to enter the doorway into gratitude and silence – and to stay with where it leads me.

Tuesday, June 19 (Day Eight)

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.

Take heaven! No peace lies in the future

which is not hidden in this present instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.

Take joy! There is a radiance and glory in darkness,

could we but see. And to see, we have only to look.

I beseech you to look! ~ Fra Giovanni

Today: I open my heart to heaven, peace, and joy in this present moment, just as it is

Wednesday, June 20 (Day Nine)

“I have a feeling that my boat has struck, down there in the depths, against a great thing. And nothing happens! Nothing…Silence…Waves… ~Nothing happens? Or has everything happened, And I am now standing quietly, in my new life?”

~ Juan Ramon Jiminez

Today: I stand quietly in hope of the new life already given.

Sources for Gathering 2012 Preparation

DAY ONE Rilke, RILKE’S BOOK OF HOURS, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, New York: Riverhead Books (2005) DAY TWO Rumi, THE ESSENTIAL RUMI, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, New Jersey: Harper (1997) DAY THREE e.e. Cummings, E.E.CUMMINGS, COMPLETE POEMS, 1904-1962, ed. George J. Firmage (1994) DAY FOUR Hafiz, THE GIFT: POEMS BY HAFIZ, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, New York: Penguin (1999) DAY FIVE Mary Oliver, NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, Vol. 2, Boston: Beacon Press (2005) DAY SIX e.e. Cummings (same as Day Three) DAY SEVEN Mary Oliver, THIRST, Boston: Beacon Press (2006) DAY EIGHT Fra Giovanni, 1513 A.D. DAY NINE Juan Ramon Jiminez, THE SOUL IS HERE FOR ITS OWN JOY, ed. Robert Bly, New Jersey: Ecco Press (1995)