My Prayer-Poem for the 4th Sunday of Lent, (Mothering Sunday) 14 March 2021

Jesus’ Mother Meets him on the Way to the Cross


He lifted his bloodied head
and for a brief moment our eyes met.
I remember the point in my chest
where pain, a slow, surging pain
began to grow like contractions
in the birth canal.
I wanted to run to him there
but I was held back lest I be recognised
and taken away.
So defenceless he was;
more defenceless, it seemed,
than he had been at the point of birth.
And in those cradle days of warm milk
and soft slumber,
I had thought of how he would be there
with me when I lay dying
and take care of my body at the end.
Oh, if I had ever known
that I would see him like this
and the cruel crowds
surging savagely for more,
I would have wept
from the very core-
of Motherhood.


©️Mark Andrew Smith
#the100dayproject #KingsSchoolsTaunton #PrayAPoem
#DioceseBathWells #WoodardSchools