The Sighing

The Sighing

by W. Thomas Edwards

I think today I may have seen the Breath of God.
It moved across the mirrored lake in little
Waveletines – a tiny ruffling puff
That shook the image of the cloud-shot morning sky
Reflected in the crystal plate-like face of polished lake.

The ducks could feel it, turning heads
To face the little whiff
And breathing in the subtle little stirring thing.

If my shy soul is like that lake
Reflecting back the grandeur of the Godhead’s face,
Then when the Holy Breathing moves across it
Why is that image blurred?

It has to be the livening force of living grace
That stirred those twelve to speak in tongues
And change the shape of God’s creation’s knowing of
The Breath
That ruffled up and blurred all human time
And life.

Feast of the Holy Innocents 2006
Oakham, Massachusetts

Tom Edwards came to St Paul’s In 1990 first as a long term visitor and later as part of the community. He sings in St Paul’s Choir and is leader and founder of the Schola Cantorum Sancti Pauli, our Gregorian chant group. Tom is a devotee of the works of Thomas Merton and is an Associate of the Order of the Holy Cross. He is also a practicing physician.