Day 16. Jessica Powers: Repairer of fences

Each day of Lent (minus Sundays) we'll bring you words of wisdom from spiritual guides.

16. Jessica Powers: Repairer of fences
I am alone in the dark, and I am thinking

what darkness would be mine if I could see

the ruin I wrought in every place I wandered

and if I could not be

aware of One who follows after me.

Whom do I love, O God, when I love Thee?

The great Undoer who has torn apart

the walls I built against a human heart,

the Mender who has sewn together the hedges

through which I broke when I went seeking ill,

the Love who follows and forgives me still.

Fumbler and fool that I am, with things around me

Of fragile make like souls, how I am blessed

To hear behind me footsteps of a Savior!

I sing to the east; I sing to the west:

God is my repairer of fences, turning my paths into rest.

(A Retreat with Jessica Powers: Loving a Passionate God [1], St. Anthony Messenger Press)

Powers (1905-88) was a Carmelite nun and a poet in Wisconsin.

Find spiritual advice for Lent from other guides in 40 days to a new you [2].