July 30, 2021 — Spirit & Verse is a monthly column of original poem-prayers composed by Cameron Bellm, a Seattle-based writer and mother of two whose “Prayer for a Pandemic” went viral, bringing solace and comfort to many struggling during COVID-19.
Bellm is also the editor of a free e-book in honor of the Ignatian Year. “Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: Through the Year with Ignatian Spirituality” includes Ignatian prayers, poems, reflections and illustrations; visit jesuits.org/ebook to receive it.
A Prayer for the Ignatian Year
Five hundred years stretch wide and coil in tight
All at once, drawing us from our modern lives
Back to a battlefield, a cannonball flying,
Reminding us that we are pilgrims
Before we are anything else.
Wherever we find ourselves on this earth—
Like us, breathed into being by divine love—
May we never make the mistake of believing
That we are far from you.
In this Ignatian year we are called
To see all things new in Christ—
Even time. Even space.
Even ourselves.
Amen.
Previous Spirit & Verse poem-prayers:
A Prayer for the Month of the Sacred Heart
A Prayer for Mary’s Month During a Pandemic
St. Joseph Prayer
A Prayer for Ash Wednesday
A Prayer for the Feast of the Epiphany
A Prayer for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
A Prayer for the Month of the Holy Souls
A Prayer for Living “Fratelli Tutti”
Our Lady of Sorrows
A Prayer for the Beginning of the School Year
A Prayer for the Feast of St. Ignatius
Cameron Bellm is a Seattle-based writer of prayers, poems, and devotionals. After completing her Ph.D. in Russian literature at the University of California, Berkeley, she traded the academic life for the contemplative life, informed by Ignatian spirituality and Catholic social teaching. She is the author of “A Consoling Embrace: Prayers for a Time of Pandemic” (23rd Publications, 2020). Cameron and her husband have two young sons, and, blessedly, playing with Legos often nurtures her spiritual life as much as reading the lectionary. You can find her at cameronbellm.com and on Instagram, @cameronbellm.
