Onto Aslan’s Shore
by Jenny DeVivo (Siena Center, Racine, WI)
Take me off the road that is paved,
To where wheels have no chance,
Where only the feet you have made can go
Where you restore my balance with a glance.
Take me where I cannot race thoughtlessly
Away from where your majesty has been silenced.
Take me where your wild beauty roars,
To where you speak upon the shores.
Only the nimble feet you have given me
Can walk in pilgrimage to this holy place,
Still untamed with splendorous radiance,
Where I long to see your face.
Let this pack animal, for once unfettered,
Dance freely upon jagged boulder
And ascend to where your glory resides
For you are my consoler.
Rocks, once jagged, have been tumbled smooth with your infinite patience,
Washed again and again in your mercy and radiance.
So too I, Lord, have been placed tenderly in your waters, where my truest beauty glistens,
Gently smooth my jagged edges; sharpen my ears to listen.
Let me never be separated from you,
Let us be united forever more.
Bear me up upon your waves,
Onto Aslan’s shore.
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Author
Jenny DeVivo is the executive director of mission and heritage at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She holds a PhD in New Testament and early Christianity from Loyola University, Chicago, and is an oblate of Saint Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, USA.