You keep saying: our bones are dry, our hope is gone, we are done for….

“I am not going to open your graves;
I shall raise you up from your graves and lead you back to the soil of Israel.

And you shall know that I AM THE LORD.

I will put my spirit in you
you will revive
I will resettle you on your own soil.

You shall know that I HAVE DONE THIS.”

The days are tired, my bones ache. A barren branch surrounded by the cold, brittle in the frozen snow. Sorrow and death swirls around the news I read. Confusion. What can I do. What can I be in the midst of such pain borne by my sisters, burden carried by my brothers….

Nothing. Only the one who proclaims I AM THE LORD will be the one to save us. He alone will announce I HAVE DONE THIS. Then I shall know that I am not God. Then we shall know that we are not God. That we need our Father. We depend on our Creator. We are blessed to surrender to the One who wants for us nothing but his own holiness and joy.

My bones ache. My soul leaps for joy. My spirit sighs. My soul rejoices. Only a Christ-bearer can carry within herself, within himself this tension. Mary. you. me.

Sr Kathryn Hermes, fsp