I hold in my hand
the profession prayer card
of Sr Marie Placide.

The prayer card depicts
what the naked eye can see.

An empty altar in darkness,
its candles unlit
and a barely discernible figure
of a nun kneeling in prayer
as she gazes into the darkness.
A scene of solitude and blackness.

But as I contemplate the image
over some days
I gradually come to realise
that the prayer card also depicts
what eyes of faith can see.

Jesus hanging on the cross,
blood dripping from His side
into a chalice.
Blood also dripping
from Jesus’s pierced hands
and forming the words
“Graces and Mercy”.

Above Jesus’s head
hovers the Holy Ghost
while God the Father,
arms extended in benediction,
looks down at His son
on the cross.

Beside the cross
stands Our Lady,
Rosary beads in hand
and a lighted candle at her feet.

Light blazes
from Jesus on the cross,
and from God the Father,
the Holy Ghost and Our Lady.

A realization that every altar
is a truly sacred space
even when the chapel is,
to all appearances,
empty
because of the great sacrifice of love
that has been offered there.
A sense that, when I kneel in prayer
before the altar,
I am in a place that is, literally,
awesome.

And as I continue my morning prayer
I say a wee prayer
for Sr Marie Placide
(whom I have never met)
that she may draw ever closer
to Our Lord Jesus Christ
as she lives out her vocation
as an SSPX sister.

© Claire Murray, 11th May 2023