JULIE ANN STEVENS

For St. Anne,
Whose Symbol is the Door

Who is also the patron of lost objects.
Whom we know only by legend.
Who was the mother of Mary.
Who became the grandmother of God.

Who must have taught her daughter
something of boldness, of clarity,
of passages, of the power of choosing,
of not fearing angels
or their wild propositions.

Who beckons me in this season
as I seek my one threshold
from many doors.

Whom I beseech:
bless me for my lostness
light fire to my shadowy sight
withstand my gut-born guessing,
my passion for the night.

Hallow the endless hallway
of doors lined frame to frame;
guardian of my threshold,
cry out my newfound name.

— Jan Richardson, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas (Cleveland: United Church Press, 1998.)