The Promise

This is a very early poem that I wrote in the monastery and have since very slightly revised.


To surrender in faith is to hope in the dark.
Dark faith it is that first bids us
walk beneath Gethsemane's vigilant leaves
to the brow of Calvary, and there
grasp the hand shattered by our sin, trusting
we shall be carried beyond the weeping stars.

For beyond is where dawn ever gleams
with the joy given to those who trust,
to whom the dark is the way,
in whose hearts echoes the Virgin's fiat
in measure clear and strong.

To surrender in faith is to hope in the dark.
To hope in the dark is to tread toward the light,
the light that is life,
the life that is love,
the love that is Lord.

© Leticia Austria 2006