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 the Epiphany
I wonder sometimes
If one of the stars that lit Abraham’s night
Was the one that led the Magi to Jesus.
A dark canvas speckled by the most generous brush—
What an improbable promise to an old man.
But our God has never been daunted by the unlikely, the impossible.
What a sight for the Magi, too,
A baby resting on hay, his cries mingled with braying and bleating.
I like to think they heard in those everyday sounds a holy chorus,
Saw in that noisy tableau a Creator serenaded by His creation,
All of it embodied, enfleshed—
All of it good.
And when we’ve left our gifts for this implausible King,
May we, like the Magi, go home by another way—
Having encountered the holy,
May we protect it, guard it,
Trail its light behind us wherever we go.
A sacred arc transposed from heaven to earth,
May we ourselves become the star,
Leading the way to Emmanuel.
Amen.
Previous Spirit & Verse poem-prayers:
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.