The Blossom by Sister Angelita Abair, OSU

How can I hold this delicate new NOW-BLOSSOMED clover?

How can I know forever the seeing joy I have of its happy yellow?

Why did all of me leap up as it caught my eye,

resting there among the green leaves and grass?

I want to hold you forever, to keep you; tiny, fragile, beautiful!

I give you water but it is too late… your cup is closed up, your 

leaves droop.

I give you water, hoping that it is not true that your moment of 

beauty is lost.

Only a moment before I began anew… heard those often repeated

words, “I absolve.”

Just a moment ago I stripped myself of those same sins and failures.

Only a moment before I lay bare my own poverties…

Then called forth a power which creates and strengthens.

How can I hold this delicate new me, NOW-BLOSSOMED?

How can I know forever the living joy I have of its presence?

Why did all of me leap up as the weight that crushed, is now no more?

I cling to that moment of eye: yellow, flower, blossosm

There upon the green carpet.

The memory of that moment lasts forever!

That moment of love in which Someone holds me forever…

Though I, too, shrivel and die, He knows me only in my blossom. 

 Easter Flowers by Sister St. Simon Simon, OSU

The flowers that bloom for Easter

Are proud and very straight,

For they stood guard one springtime

Outside of heaven’s gate.

One springtime in a garden

Where Heaven was laid away,

Sealed within a narrow tomb,

To wait for Easter Day.

Gabriel did not sound the blast

Which told how time had sped - 

The lily’s trumpet called to life

The first born of the dead.

The cherubim and seraphim

Stand round the throne and sing - 

On earth the flowers are angel choirs

To hail the risen king.

Spring Tease by Sister Mary Rose Krupp, OSU

Wistful spring winks

As she flirts with us

And nods under gray skies

An impatient lady

Yet too dignified

To thrust winter aside.

Spring teases us --

Not a perfect lady,

She’s capricious

Doles out sunshine

And storms to cleanse

With Nature’s scouring brush.

No, she is not a shrew

This playful daughter

Of Nature who loves

The greening of grass,

Buds, leaves, trees.

Let her not be tamed.