Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Louis TemplemanMarch 29, 2010

He has not much time, maybe minutes.
Maybe minutes.
Yet he catches her eye. She sees
the sweat, blood and pus making
tracks in the dirt on his face.
Hers were the first eyes he entered
and now will be his last.
Against rough wood and iron spikes
he shifts up his flesh for air to speak.
She holds her breath to catch
his words, “Woman.”
His beaten aching body—swaddled in blood—
breathes, “Woman
behold your son.”
She watches as he shifts his eyes
to the young man whose strong arms
steady her. “Behold your mother.”
Her knees weaken, but her weight
is secured in the young man’s strength.
In her memory echoes a “yes”
as present and eternal as
the blood that stains her hands,
her face, her clothing.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Elizabeth MacAdams
14 years 9 months ago

Louis,


You have captured the essence of Good Friday!


God bless you and let him continue to speak through your words!


Liz

The latest from america

For President Trump, there are obvious, common-sense answers to all the problems that plague America. Even when things may be challenging or require effort, they are never, ever complicated.
Sam Sawyer, S.J.January 21, 2025
Josephine Ward was a strong critic of Catholic modernism, and many of her novels featured protagonists struggling to reconcile au courant political and religious ideas with the strictures of the Catholic Church.
James T. KeaneJanuary 21, 2025
The show of national and international support in California reflects the human unity that God calls us to.
Leilani FuentesJanuary 21, 2025
Praying for the president does not mean that you endorse everything he says and does. All should pray for him and the country, even those who hate him.
Thomas J. ReeseJanuary 21, 2025