Image by Myriam Zilles from Pixabay
Simple
Taper crowned by
Ascending dancing flame
God-wards like our devotion and
Prayers
Padre
God-Wards: A Cinquain
Devotion
A Long Retreat
Sue Vincent’s Photo Prompt
It was more than a deer trail, but less than a road, this little path through the wood. Autumn leaves of copper hue littered the path. Andre had travelled it hundreds of time since he had taken his vows, but this time was different. He was no longer a novice carrying food to the hermitage, but he was going to be taking up residence there. For the next year he would live a life of prayer and contemplation uninterrupted by the face to face contact with humankind.
True, a novice would come each day and bring him food and drink, but he would remain in the sanctuary of the windowless cabin until he heard the post-Laud bell. He would then collect his daily meal and return to his prayers and study.
Brother Benedict had been welcomed back into the community only yesterday. He was pale and gaunt after his year of solitude, but somehow the glory of God seemed to emanate from him all the more for his ordeal.
Would Andre be so blessed? Only time would tell. But for now he travelled the lonely copper strewn trail to the lonelier hermitage where only the Lord would be his companion.
Padre
The Taylor (Tailor)
Artwork: Ludwig Johann Passini
This is an adaptation of a poem I wrote some years ago to honour a really inspirational man I had known as a teenager. Brother Dominic was a truly humble man with a heart for God. In this rendering of the poem, I have used the name Mattheus rather than the original Dominic, as I have recently used that name Dominic in a short fiction piece. This is not to diminish the debt I owe to the example of Dominic in my own spiritual development.
Dom Mattheus is his name,
T’is twenty years since first he came,
To live his life by the Rule,
A threaded needle as his tool.
Repairing habits, sewing seams,
With lines as strait as any machine,
Each stitch an act of divine devotion,
By a humble man who sought no promotion.
To pray and stitch, was his daily task,
The chance to serve was all he asked,
Small tasks unnoticed, seen by few,
But by Him above, it is He who knew.
Padre
Padre's Ramblings 