Prayer to Mother Theodore Guérin, Written on Her Feast Day

To one whose heart watches
who has gone and sleeps in
the peace of a linden,
Mother Theodore, bless

me and all you have moved
to prayer and providence.
Please do not take offense
if I have failed and not loved

as you held dear the woods
in which knowledge and virtue
you united. I too
much when in pensive moods

did not remember all
you had felt of God in
an Indiana Eden
you had made. In this fall

when summer turns to sleep
and you watch with patience,
it is then that I sense
promises I have to keep.

By Patrick Harkins

(Patrick Harkins is a member of St. Joseph University Parish in Terre Haute.)

The Criterion