Her Amazement at Her Only Child (Karol Wojtyla)

 

   Light piercing, gradually, everyday events; 

a woman’s eyes, hands 

used to them since childhood. 

Then brightness flared, too huge for simple days, 

and hands clasped when words lost their space. 

  

   In that little town, my son, where they knew us together, 

you called me mother, but no one had eyes to see 

the astounding events as they took place day by day. 

Your life became the life of the poor 

in your wish to be with them through the work of your hands. 

   I knew:  the light that lingered in ordinary things, 

like a spark sheltered under the skin of our days –   

the light was you;  

it did not come from me. 

  

   And I had more of you in that luminous silence 

than I had of you as the fruit of my body, my blood. 

--Karol Wojtyla/St. John Paul II, 

Her Amazement at Her Only Child

Translated by Jerry Peterkiewicz

New York:  Random House, 1982

Image source:  Le Nain Brothers, The Rest of the Holy Family (17th century France) https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f7/e4/40/f7e440f713dd50d733c4cde2cfe52508.jpg