But the Breath of the Spirit, c. 1973
By Mia Schilling Grogan
But the Breath of the Spirit, c. 1973
The new folk group has four or five singers,
one guitarist, two tambourines, maracas.
They play in the lower church, which for some
reason is where we go each week. Upstairs
six candles lit behind the altar mean
the priest will be chanting. That might be why.
And plus, my brothers and I think that song
we sing after communion also comes on
in the car. Doesn’t it? (The answer, my friend,
is blowing in the wind... but we’re too young
to recognize Dylan.) I do love to sing
Spirit of God in the clear running water
and feel in its headlong, cheerful rush
the joy of a world brought to birth by God’s
breath. Blow, blow, blow till I be, but the breath of
the Spirit blowing in me.
There are winds
sweeping us in ways that feel fresh. At school
we place our hands in a circle and Sister
shows us how beautiful the different colors
look together. We learn about the saints,
and make felt banners of other heroes
to use at mass: Roberto Clemente,
Cesar Chavez, Dorothy Day.
One Sunday
it is First Communion not for a class
but for one girl, seated with her family
up front. No one is especially dressed up,
though she wears flowers worked into her braids.
She receives first, and then her dad, his long
hair and jeans marking him as different from
the bald, blazered man who sits beside me.
Back in his pew, the hippy dad is crying,
rocking in prayer, overcome with a joy
that is plain on his face. We end, guitars
thrumming of our oneness in the spirit:
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love!
Artist Statement
But the Breath of the Spirit, c. 1973
The Instrumentum Laboris highlights the characteristics of a Synodal church, including:
This Church is not afraid of the variety it bears, but values it without forcing it into uniformity. The synodal process has been an opportunity to begin to learn what it means to live unity in diversity, a fundamental point to continue exploring, trusting that the path will become clearer as we move forward. Therefore, a synodal Church promotes the passage from “I” to “we”. It is a space within which a call resonates to be members of a body that values diversity but is made one by the Spirit.
I have early memories of feeling the movement of the Spirit in the Church just after the Second Vatican Council; they remain clear, even though I was quite young. This Synod’s emphasis on valuing our diversity as Church evokes that hopeful time whose ambition of embracing difference I have tried to capture in this poem.
About the Artist
Mia Schilling Grogan is an associate professor of English at Chestnut Hill College. She is a medievalist who specializes in hagiography and women’s spiritual writing. Her poems have appeared in many journals including America, First Things, and Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry. In 2023 she was pleased to win third place in the Catholic Literary Arts Sacred Poetry Contest, a Laureate’s Choice award in the Maria Faust Sonnet Contest, and an Honorable Mention in the Fare Forward Poetry Competition.