Sr. M. Paulinus, IHM
Poetry for the season
On this first day of Spring…
She was born in Pittsburgh in 1899 where she began her education at St. Mary of the Mount School. She graduated from Marywood College in Scranton and taught at St. Ann School in Scranton, and St. Patrick School in Oneida, NY. She earned a Ph.D. In English at Fordham, after which she returned to Marywood as an English professor and chaired the department from 1963-1968.
Sister Mary Paulinus Sullivan, IHM1 is best remembered for her lyric poetry found in two collections, Sabbath and Wide to His Weather, which she co-authored with her sister, Sister M. Davida Sullivan, IHM.
This poem first appeared in 1956 when the publisher Sheed &Ward held a contest for new Catholic writers. The book is titled Beginnings: Prose and Verse Selected in a Contest for New Catholic Writers.
However Casually You May Go
by Sister M. Paulinus I.H.M.
Walking a woodland in the Spring
Is, by no means, a trivial thing -
Let no one tell you so.
However casually you may go,
With every glance at this fair world,
You run a chance of being hurled
Upon your knees, upon your face:
The Living God is in this place.
I grant you He is everywhere. But here
Awareness is blade-sheer.
No shyest glade is reticent anent
His Presence and oh, the buds are bent
To bursting on letting you know
Upon what holy ground you go.
Sister Paulinus passed away in 1979. Her obituary may be found at IHM Obituary
Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Sr. Paulinus was my professor at Marywood. One class Sister read this poem to us. I was spellbound. For many many decades I've been trying to find this complete poem. Hallelujah for this website Thanks be to God.
At a very young age, maybe seven or eight, I saw God in Nature. This poem expresses that so beautifully!