At the Weekend, I posted a blog item about Sister Irène-Marie, a beautiful nun and iconographer. She was a member of the community at the Monastère Sainte Françoise Romaine, Le Bec Hellouine, Normandy. You can read more about her if you scroll back two blog entries.

Her funeral is today, Thursday 9th, at the Convent and I just wanted to mark the entry into heaven of a dear friend.
So I have written the following poem.

Dear Sister Irène-Marie,
bearer of Peace,
held in the love of Mary,
you brought a singular joy into our lives.
We met you and sensed your nearness to God.
We were enraptured by your sacramental eyes
which mirrored the Divine.

Extending monastic  hospitium ,
you encircled us with welcome,
embracing our need with thoughtfulness
and gentle love, which was kept warm
within the folds of your habit.

Your listening expressed concern 
for a broken world from which you could draw
a reservoir of experience.
No hidden cell housed you.
The lives of others glazed your windows
and held open the door from which rays of love shone.

Most of all, you ‘wrote’ visible signs
of  God’s Presence  in Jesus and the Saints.
You dipped your brush and pen
in the palette and inkwell of God.
From the depth of your prayerful iconography
you led us into the heart of faith
which has led you now into the bosom of your Saviour,
for as you said, that is what you, (and we,) “are here for.”

Thank you for opening and sharing the images
of your faith with us.
By you we have been truly blessed.

[Mr. G. 8^th February 2023]

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