Sunday, October 9, 2011

Sheila Cassidy's "The Divine Economy"

In the book entitled "Spiritual Literacy - Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life" [edited by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Copyright 1996 by Mary Ann Brussat and Frederic Brussat, Touchstone, New York, NY] we find mentioned Sheila Cassidy, who was jailed as a prisoner of conscience in Chile.  The editors highlight Ms. Cassidy's belief that all pain and suffering in the universe has a purpose in what she calls "The Divine Economy". Sheila Cassidy writes:

"I believe,
no pain is lost,
no tear unmarked,
no cry of anguish
dies unheard,
lost in the hail of gunfire
or blanked out by a padded cell.
I believe that pain
and prayer
are somehow saved,
processed,
stored,
used in the Divine Economy.
The blood
shed in Salvador
will irrigate the heart
of some financier
a million miles away.
The terror,
pain,
despair,
swamped by lava, flood, or earthquake
will be caught up
like mist and fall again,
a gentle rain
on arid hearts
or souls despairing
in the back streets of Brooklyn."
   -- Sheila Cassidy in "Sharing the Darkness."