A Poem

Special thanks to the Passionist nuns of St. Joseph Monastery, who let me reprint this poem from their blog, “In Shadow of His Wings":

A nun is a woman
Who believes in the Absolute

And arises in search of it,
Laughing at all who
Speak of the impossibility of it,
For a woman, who is a nun,
Knows that the impossible
Becomes the possible in a matter of seconds,
At the bidding of her Beloved
A nun is a woman who has become mad,
Totally, irrevocably mad!
For she has accepted
The standard of God’s wisdom
Which is in truth folly to man.
A nun is a woman
Hanging on the other
Side of His cross
Knowing that it becomes
His marriage bed with her
The moment she asks
“To be lifted up” with Him.
A nun is a woman
Of the water and the towel
Constantly kneeling before
Mankind to wash its
Tired feet.
A nun is a woman
In love with God - hence with all humanity
Always…constantly…totally!
A nun is a prayer -
Everlastingly lifting her arms to God
For those who don’t.
A nun is a woman
Who fasts
Knowing well how fast fast reaches
The heart of God!
A nun is a woman
Wrapped in the Poverty of God,
The mantle of
His surrender, His emptying!
A nun is a woman
Who exists
To show that God exists too.

(by Catherine de Hueck Doherty)

I like this poem because it seems to me that if you replaced “nun” with “consecrated virgin,” it would describe my own vocation perfectly. I suppose that when people ask me what role consecrated virgins have in the Church, I could use as a response: “A consecrated virgin is a woman who exists to show that God exists, too!”