Spirit & Verse is a monthly column of original poem-prayers composed by Cameron Bellm, a Seattle-based writer and mother of two whose “Prayer for a Pandemic” went viral, bringing solace and comfort to many struggling during COVID-19.
A Prayer for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
We all have our Tepeyac,
Our hill we’re hurrying over in these December days.
Perhaps, like Juan Diego,
We are even avoiding You
In our rush to get where we’re going—
To finish the shopping,
To hang the decorations,
To prepare the meal.
May each one of us be stunned,
Stopped in our tracks,
By Your call to us in our native tongue.
Alone as we may feel this Advent,
Speak to us once more—
Remind us of this:
That You are here,
That You are Our Mother,
That You love us tenderly and unfailingly.
May we gather Your roses,
So improbably blooming in the winter chill,
And shower them on a weary world,
Hungry for hope.
Amen.
Previous Spirit & Verse poem-prayers:
A Prayer for the Month of the Holy Souls
A Prayer for Living “Fratelli Tutti”
Our Lady of Sorrows
A Prayer for the Beginning of the School Year
A Prayer for the Feast of St. Ignatius
Cameron Bellm is a Seattle-based writer of prayers, poems, and devotionals. After completing her Ph.D. in Russian literature at the University of California, Berkeley, she traded the academic life for the contemplative life, informed by Ignatian spirituality and Catholic social teaching. She is the author of “A Consoling Embrace: Prayers for a Time of Pandemic” (23rd Publications, 2020). Cameron and her husband have two young sons, and, blessedly, playing with Legos often nurtures her spiritual life as much as reading the lectionary. You can find her at cameronbellm.com and on Instagram, @cameronbellm.