A Song for Bernadette

A Song for Bernadette by Sister Maris Stella

“An image of Our Lady
stands in a shady
corner of the room.
I break the gloom
with a potted violet
tended and set
most surely for a sign:
this is a shrine.
And even more
this is a door
through which I see
things dear to me:
the niche upon the mountain
where runs the healing fountain;
the beloved one,
bright as the sun,
praised by a lonely
child only.
The violet-shine
has made a shrine
here in this room,
breaking the gloom
where the image stands
with folded hands.
And so I name the violet
Bernadette.”

 

~Source: The Mary Book, edited by Frank J. Sheed (b. 1897- d. 1982), Sheed and Ward, 1950.

~Image: the French Catholic saint Bernadette Soubirous (b. 1844- d. 1879), source.

~For viewing: a movie about the life of St. Bernadette, The Song of Bernadette, information.