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 Month of the Sacred Heart
Limping and lumbering we come,
Encumbered and heavily laden, bent low.
Each June we make this pilgrimage
To be reminded of a truth eternal:
There is no pain, no sorrow, no suffering
That does not have a home here,
In this sacred space that opens wide for all.
With holy heart and holy hands
Jesus sought out all those excluded,
The fire of His love becoming a hearth of welcome,
His blood pouring out on us a benediction.
O wounded healer, brow pierced, side lanced,
Gather us in with your compassion
So deeply human, so perfectly divine.
Amen.
Previous Spirit & Verse poem-prayers:
A Prayer for Mary’s Month During a Pandemic
St. Joseph Prayer
A Prayer for Ash Wednesday
A Prayer for the Feast of the Epiphany
A Prayer for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
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.