The Tomb
How secure the tomb is.How cosy it is in its snugness.
It is here that the struggle for birth begins.
The groans of childbirth reverberate around the tomb.
I want to stay here; but I also want to live.
I am the child ready to be born.
The tomb is the womb of God.
Out of the tomb is born the child of God.
I am the child,
fighting its birth,
trying to hang on to the false securities of the past.
I am here, inside God, ready to be born into the world.
At this moment of resurrection,
I know the birth pains of God, my mother.
For the first time I know the pain of God,
who is at work recreating me.
As I struggle, trying to remain inside the womb,
I hear the screams of God as she gives birth.
Judy Holyer
Judy Holyer offered this poem in the course of the retreat which she read out loud in a sharing session. Used by permission.