Good Night/Good Morning Little Bird

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" 

(Jn 20:29)

Within my profession I have used the saying with my friends and family that “Today we sent someone to heaven.” Even though these words connote the greatest of joys, I in the midst of my ordinary life am asked to mourn softly for a loss. 

This past week, I used this phrase once more but to communicate the passing of one of my best friends, Fr. “Matt” Robinson. Never, have these mentioned words given me such freedom in celebrating the quiet passage which we make towards our loving Father. I discovered by way of Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP that Fr. Matt passed with his brothers by his side singing “Salve”. I truly believe that, in our Father’s mercy, this song would have been heard seamlessly as he was greeted by the heavenly choirs!!

 I recall my first meeting with Fr. Matt with such vivid detail and color. I had recently transferred to the University of Dallas after some of the most difficult months of my life. In entering a new environment, being a stranger to all on campus, and having listened to my first phenomenology lecture, I had reached the point of feeling completely defeated. In my brokenness, I sought out the one thing I had trusted and found peace in: the sacrifice of the Mass. As soon as I arrived, Fr. Matt in his small frame greeted me with a sweet smile and welcomed me in for mass. The moment Fr. Matt began praying I felt my heart light up with fire. God had given me the comfort I needed to get through that day, the next day, and the course of my undergraduate life.

That beautiful ablaze which I experienced on our first meet only grew as our friendship deepened and enriched my life. When seeking a spiritual director for my discernment, I felt it in my heart to ask him and he responded with his humbling refrain: “I’d be happy to. How may I help you?” His faithfulness, sincerity, and love- led me to the path of preparing for marriage and will undoubtedly continue to bear witness to the many treasures which he meaningfully sown in my heart.

I can write a lifetime on the gifts he has shared with me, but I thought it might be truer to share with you a collection of his poems. What better way to keep him present in our hearts than to enter into an eternal conversation with the pure expression of his spirit.

Thank you for your continual yes to God, Fr. Matt! In your valiant effort to reveal the beauty of the human person, you became that which you were attempting to defend: the trusting, quiet, loving presence of the powerful, transforming image of God! What a beautiful vessel of God’s love you were, and continue to be, to us all!

Original poems by Fr. Edward Mathias (Matt) Robinson, OP

Celebrate Life!

Time is for waiting and time is for doing;
Time is for savoring and time is for ruing.
Life is a long line of time tied to time,
Much like words, giving sense to this rhyme.

Then, what?

The book is open and the pages turn,
Marking the time for me to discern
The cost per item of time soon spent,
To ponder the past, wherever it went.

The drip of water and the flow of sand
Can measure time that is now at hand.
But what of the day, when they run out?
That's the time to be thinking about.

To the Final Port

Unfurl the sails; the day is done.
Set the course into the sun
Of that most prized, Perpetual Day.
Then close the log: let the Record say:

"He ventured far; he played his part, 
Battered some, yet firm of heart.
He changed the watch with steady hand
And trusted God to find that Land."

Mother and Child

A breath-taking sunset or a symphony of sound
Are fainter in beauty than what can be found
In the smile of a child.

The highest of mountains or greenest of fields
Fall short of the beauty a mother's face yields
To the eyes of a child.

May you be that child, in whose smile can be seen
And whose eyes can perceive, you know what I mean,
The beauty of God

Abortion's Aftermath
(A prayer of healing)

The fruit of the vine
has been stripped,
And the vine has been
broken!

Only the blood of the grape
remains,
And those who drink of it
awaken in sorrow.

The pain of sorrowing
can give way to joy,
by the path of repentance
leading to life, 
in the fragrance
of God's forgiveness.

"I have come that they may have life, 
and may have it more abundantly." Jn. 10,10

Being Human

A single pebble stirs the total lake,
When dropped into its center.
It's an empty gift if no others take
Occasion of its circles, to enter!

Two small stones, in different places,
Dropped on the lake, their circles make,
This time, forming some happy faces
Where ripples of each, in the other's partake.

Peace

The dove sits lightly on its perch,
Though a world rests on its shoulders.
If dart it must, our world is shaken;
If die it can, the orb is shattered.

A gentle bird, a strict ecology demands,
An environment of harmony and order:
The smallest factor to its role be true,
To win the whole by helping of the parts.

With fingers full of Chemistry & Physics,
Grosser things of life we "keep in line:"
The material of our tangible surroundings.
A finer thing, our humaneness, we often fail.

Do human actions have no rules, no plan,
To keep us one with self and neighbor?
Or is the mischief in our willingness
To want what tears asunder?

Rather, do our choices, seen too close,
Blind us to their faithful consequence,
So that our wish is not to want the whole
Which reigns without our bidding?

As I do, by my choices, threat the bird,
So my nation and my world will shake
The unsteady perch from which it serves,
And loosen its grip on the twig of sanity.

The King of Peace is needed much
To guide our hand, in reaching out
When storms of self are raging,
To stay the fragile branch.