Comfort, O comfort my people, says God.
A bishop stands praying in Texas where
a young man lies in a hospital bed.
Comfort, O comfort the migrants who come
flesh torn by cruel concertina coils
sun-burned, dehydrated, scorched by the heat
bodies crushed, bones broken, life leaking out
someone’s father brother sister mother.
Comfort, O comfort my people, says God.
You are my people, they are my people,
seeking safety, dying in a strange land,
and God will feed the flock like a shepherd,
gently gather the lambs, carry them home.
In Texas, a bishop stands by the bed.
[References:
First reading for the Second Sunday of Advent, Isaiah 40:1-11 and “Praying with dying migrants a key duty for El Paso’s Bishop Seitz” in National Catholic Reporter, December 4, 2023.]
Fragments is written by Mary Turck, who lives and writes in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Fragments 