Pentecost & John the Baptist
John the Baptist’s preaching foreshadows Pentecost. Mt. 3:11"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Today our Parish displayed three new icons behind the alter: Elijah, Pentecost, and John the Baptist. Looking at it reminded me of a poem my mother, Marie Schmitt Ely (1914-1945) wrote about John. This was one of 12 poems meditating on paintings done by Franciscan missionaries during the 18th century in what is now the state New Mexico. The collection of silkscreen renditions of the paintings and her poems was published as Sacred Paintings on Skin in 1944 by the Museum of New Mexico Press.
My mother died from Leukemia in 1945. With the help of my son, David , I started a weblog in order to publish her poems.
For a collection of my mother’s poems and her story, click here
St. John the Baptist
A comely man, with naught of arrogance
Or pride of self, nor yet desire for wealth,
He said he only came to lead the way,_
To urge repentance of our sins,
He wished to take us by the hand
And baptize us to wash our guilt away
His preaching had a desert tang, of strength
And fervor hardly won, but rooted deep.
He wore a tunic made of camel’s hair
And cloak of some poor suff. His staff was rough,
And bore the legend of the heartfelt words
He so when first he met his Lord
And baptised him: “Behold the Lamb of God!”
And from that time; he urged upon us more
And ever more a firmer sorrow
For our sins. Sometimes we’d think we saw a Lamb
Beside him there, with shining fleece, and face
Of such pure light we’d blink and scare could look.
Yea—John was strange and strong - -
He stood alone and spoke his words with fire.
Comments