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Window of Pain

By Mary Ann Breisch
Graphite and watercolor on paper, 2006

 

The Way of the Cross
By Jan Christophersen

1. “Jesus is condemned to death.”
 

Waiting tensely for the verdict
– a wrenching time before the answer,
“You have cancer.”

   
2. “Jesus takes up his Cross.”
 

The way of suffering is my chance for life.
I do not want to bear the cross.
I feel lost.

   
3. “Jesus falls the first time.”
 

I choose the surgery that’s offered,
then wake with terror in the night,
fighting, faltering in my fright.

   
4. “Jesus meets his afflicted mother.”
 

Finding comfort in my friends
and loved ones standing by,
but feeling stabbed with grief, I cry.

   
5. “The Cross is laid on Simon of Cyrene.”
 

I do not bear it all alone.
My friends will walk with me
and share the cross life’s given me.

   
6. “A woman wipes the face of Jesus.”
 

Feeling wretched after chemo,
they come and hold my hands and face.
How hard it is accepting grace.

   
7. “Jesus falls a second time.”
 

I want to do it all alone,
not feel so fragile, weak and needy
– my independence falling, bleeding.

   
8. “Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.”
 

Many share my pain with me,
and some have shared my weeping.
My heart is in their tender keeping.

   
9. “Jesus falls a third time.”
 

It takes such courage to walk this path.
I stumble, fall, get up again.
What caused this all? What wrong? What sin?

   
10. “Jesus is stripped of his garments.”
 

It strips away so much of me,
bravado, and false modesty.
I’m so exposed from day to day.

   
11. “Jesus is nailed to the Cross.”
 

Hear the pounding of the nails.
See the needles sticking me,
both pain and cure infusing me.

   
12. “Jesus dies on the Cross.”
 

Something’s dying deep inside,
old fears still hanging from the past,
exposed and brought to light at last.

   
13. “The body of Jesus is placed in the arms of his mother.”
 

The cancer cells are carried off.
The Spirit-Mother mothers me
and holds me tight, embracing me.

   
14. “Jesus is laid in the tomb.”
 

I lay my life down in my faith.
The Lent of the Cancer days are ending,
my soul and body slowly mending.

 

(Written on Good Friday.)

 
     
 
 
     
  Jan Christophersen is a retired Registered Nurse, mother, grandmother, and cancer survivor. She has written poetry since she was nine-years old. Jan is a Labyrinth Facilitator at Church of the Servant in Wilmington, North Carolina and conducts workshops in spiritual growth using a portable labyrinth. The Way of the Cross is from her chapbook "A Journey of Hope" a collection of poems written during her struggle with cancer.

Email: seashelljan@earthlink.net
Web site: www.jancan.net
Parish: Church of the Servant - Wilmington, North Carolina
 
     
 

Mary Ann Breisch is a liturgical textile artist working in vestments and sacred textiles for corporate worship. She also constructs personal sacred spaces. Mary Ann has been included in several ECVA exhibitions including "Visual Preludes 2006". She produces out of the belief that all are called to live consciously, creatively, compassionately, and that the process is inherently divine.

Email: mabinc@sbcglobal.net
Web site: www.maryannbreischinc.com
Parish: Trinity Cathedral - Cleveland, Ohio

 
     
 
 

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©2006 The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts