Kathryn Forrester Thro, Poet Laureate, Call to Action on behalf of the world's children

Among my friends, I'm delighted with the countless acts of chivalry and everyday kindnesses I see towards myself and so many others. But I know we all do battle in the outside world with just the opposite

Just yesterday, I had some chance encounters with rudeness in which I could have let the incivility go and simply ignored the behavior, but I did not. These can be teachable moments. I had what I call a "table turning" moment. Are you shocked? I had one of these moments years ago at the local general assembly when I did not like the attitude I was encountering in regard to caring for our homeless brethren and people in crisis.

I generally choose to listen quietly and learn. So many of my friends are great scholars and many are great citizens making a difference in the world in their own way. Do nice people make a royal fuss when things get out of hand? Most certainly. I believe I had more fun upsetting a few tables in front of our good senators than many have on Mardi Gras. Yes, Virginia, there is room for temperament. It is good to keep it under strict control, but as Shakespeare noted in Henry V "Nice customs curtsy to great kings." Go ahead and have your say. When you encounter injustice, if there is no table handy, stand your ground, draw the line and say "No more."

My brave hearted friends know my moods well. My silence may one moment be adoration or possibly sadness or disdain. Do not always think you know you have discerned it. That's the charm of life and a lady's prerogative.

Kindness is born of love and consideration of others as equal human beings. Yet how many times do we see people begging on the street and how many people respond to their pleas by attempting to ignore them? Yes, some are perhaps running a dishonest game, but many are not. How many people live in desperation? Do we turn out hearts and minds away from them?
How many good people have lost jobs and face poverty? What should our attitude be to those countless people without health insurance? Do we take the "I've got mine, you get your own" attitude? What of other's political stances? Can we dare to express opinions at the risk of losing friends of opposite viewpoints? I have good friends from all sides of the political spectrum who, I trust, respect mine. We must all find some common ground.

I have dozens of people I consider friends who have the most surprising opinions on subjects close to my heart. But they base their opinions on their particular life experience and have every right to them as I do mine. I'm intrigued by their opinions and their loyalty to their causes, and often surprised when we agree on anything at all.
I find most people of good upbringing to be the same.

On a global scale, some, not all, of the "haves" have always simply dismissed entire generations of "have nots" by dismissive and superior attitudes. "The Poor" nations become a silent, unwanted shadow that the rich nations attempt to blot out by a process of shunning and dis-inheritance. On a day to day level, people choose to interact either with awe and wonder or by turning away from whatever is unpleasant or frightening, thus a silent holocaust occurs daily:

One in two children in the world face hunger every day. One in two. Twenty five thousand children in the world die every single day, a known fact. Hunger, disease and poverty are their killers. Twenty five thousand. One child every three and one half seconds. This is the epitome of social injustice and a turning away from all that is decent or civil. A simple "google" on hunger and poverty gives us these facts, and the same websites tell us why these facts are not in the headlines. UNICEF, who relays these figures to the world, wrote of this and is clearly seen on the website "Global Issues." These are not my findings, but those of experts around the world. Many have said, before me, "Every three and one half seconds, snap your fingers together and pray a silent prayer, because another child has died." Some say the answer is to battle the despots and tyrants around the world who stop the trucks delivering aid. Some say the churches are doing all they can. Band Aid, Farm Aid, all who help are blessed. What is the answer?

A young woman made the news recently as the latest victim of Taliban injustice: Forced into marriage at the tender age of sixteen to a much older man, she managed to escape at nineteen. But she was found, and her nose and one ear were cut off. She survived to tell her story to the world, thanks to a woman's shelter which helps countless victims such as she. Her rescuers are true examples of chivalry in action, and what the world needs. But what to do to prevent such cruelty in time to save others from the tyrants? Enlightenment and well wishes may come far too late for so many.

Chivalry is love in action. Civility is meant to be extended to all persons, and most especially "the widows and children in their distress." Whatever your belief system, whatever politics you hold close to your heart, be open to those at the forefront of the cause of benevolence. We must all choose our battles. Yours is as sacred as another's. And mine? I like to think of Christ among the children. Heaven, he declared, is made of them. All around the world, both near and far, they hold up their little faces to us like small flowers reaching for the sunlight. It is love they are reaching for. For some of them, the view is blocked by tyrannical abuse, child trafficking, hunger, disease and poverty. Others bask in love daily. Someday they will be the ones to battle for others.
Just now, we are those who must battle for them. We put on whatever armor we hold most holy, and stand our ground. We draw lines daily, we pray, we watch and work in the world. Your calling, although different from mine, is just as worthy. Mine is to link those in desperation to those who can help. What begins as civility in our own, quite fortunate society, must expand, must extend to all other people of the earth and most urgently to each child.

As the Global Issues site points out in regard to the twenty five thousand dying every day, "this is an earthquake daily." and yet we seldom read or hear of it. Haiti's earthquake grabbed the world's attention, as did hurricane Katrina, and so many other natural disasters. Yet to hear that one precious child dies in the world every three and one half seconds due to poverty, hunger and disease, is a holocaust beyond all others. In the holy season of Lent, when we see the sacrifice made by Christ and His Mother in giving Him to the world, we can, no matter what our religion, see that love must extend to all. "True religion and undefiled before God is caring for orphans and widows in their distress." This is our common ground: seeds of love arising out of compassion and flowering into joyful, benevolent acts towards others.

In the name of love, in all that we call civility, all that is holy calls us to action in such a time as this.
Who speaks for the children, who cannot speak for themselves? Perhaps only our loving actions towards them, in their plaintive distress.

Love and prayers.
Kathryn
Foundress of Mary's Joy
A helping hands link. "Linking those in need with those who can help."
Sponsor a simple Shoebox Project now. An elegant and simple solution to everyday needs.
Contact Kathryn via email at forresterbooks@earthlink.net for more information on Mary's Joy projects.

Comrade……Beloved

Kathryn Forrester Thro


Come, Beloved. You. It was you
I wished for in my travels.
You, all along. In the ice palaces,
and in the safety of Varykyno. You,

far from the politburo of the Kremlin.
Cold from my long train’s journey from
Moscow, long days through the mountains,
arriving weary at the inn, shivering

at the very threat of winter sky,
I sat alone at my small, appointed table
at a Latvian hotel, eating thick bread
like a grateful anarchist,

drank strong coffee,
seeing you in the rise of steam
from my gold-rimmed cup,
dreaming, dreaming of you far from me,

far from these winter hills,
somewhere under a blazing sun.
And I realized light had fallen from the sky
and so I climbed the winding stairs to bed.

And I said inside my room by candle light,
Yes, I am undone, then. Lost
as a child in the cavernous, canopied bed,
took up my journal from the bedside table,

my poor poet’s pen aloft,
poised as if to write some
grand and elevated truth
then knew in that instant

that you, Beloved, are my only truth.
That I am weary of wandering and
have long imagined your eyes locked,
mesmerized in mine.
You I desired in my rooms near the fireside,
upon the floor, with only the bear skin
rug beneath us, our only cover the gossamer
of sheet dragged swiftly from the bed,

a single candle flame upon the window sill.
Frost and fire. Snow sent to cool the wanton earth.
And I trembled to dream of you even then, hearing
far off bells, cathedrals at even-song. Ah, yes..

a dispensation. Eden pointing on to Paradise.
Forgiven then, long ago, the taking of me in your arms.
I think I wrote of you even in my childhood verse when
I saw angel’s wings amid the falling snow,

wind howling, wings fluttering
outside tremulous glass panes.
Earth and Heaven, heart’s desiring, yes,
the angels understand….

Your Lion heart is Legend.
So they sing Rush, come. Even now,
far from my travels, my mind plays
upon the night I realized

that my whole life is this, a prayer, and
it is simply this: God knows that I was
made for you, Rush then, come.
This ground is yours by rights.

Come, seize, and flights of angels
shall follow closely, envious,
And I say come, yes rush, come
upon me on a winter’s night.

We shall rise and rest eternally in Heaven,
yet the morning, Comrade, Beloved, shall
not hide the majesty and truth of love’s poor
wanderings nor the star’s.

Rush. come. And violins shall
never cease their
playing of our
one celestial hymn.

Kathryn Forrester Thro-The Little Mass Bells

Kathryn Forrester Thro: The Litttle Bells

Falling asleep last night after writing of the beauty of the small bells we hear at Mass, and of the loveliness of the Blessed Virgin's virtues, the thought came to my so quickly how I am like those earthly, transitory bells that can only point towards Heaven.

Someday, I will no longer have a voice at all. I might not awaken on this side of Paradise, but instead die to this world and perhaps be with Christ in Paradise, or await a further transformation of the soul.

Do we each have a special gift that is God's delight? If one is brilliant, studious, handsome, logical, persuasive, one can go out into the world and teach, bringing others to Christ through wisdom, through sharing in the vein of "Come, let us reason together." How magnificent, these great teachers! Leading us further into the mysteries of God, the history of the Church, all the while showing the love of Christ in their devotion to instructing us! Every lesson, every instruction sweeping us up in the ecstasy of the history and present passion of Christ in our lives while we listen in awe and wonder as new lambs in the fold.

What alchemy, what tender upbringing, we wonder, what sacrifices, and such great grasp of heavenly knowledge go into the making of those teachers who lead us towards the wisdom of love? How miraculous, to have the gift of the Great Teacher Himself, to now share that gift with all the lambs in the fold so that we stay safe in the arms of God? One is breathless, swept up in wonder at how generously and perfectly God shines out in His chosen teachers, who are shepherds of faith, who call us forward to participate in some way....In our awe, we shy away, and may wonder if we have anything to call a gift of our own, so entranced are we at the sheer majesty of wisdom we are only now seeing for the first time!


If one is born beautiful and admired, she may wed, have many children and bless the world and the church.

If one is poor, or is a lost child, she may be the one lamb that the Good Shepherd goes after, leaving the other Ninety and the Nine in the locked gates to search for that one, dear child of God. God has a special love for all those wanderers, for we, like sheep, so often go astray and so His love is big enough to search us out and find us, wherever we are.

But if I am neither brilliant or beautiful in the least, and am perhaps only a new convert, safe for the time being in the gates after myself being caught up in the Shepherd's great arms, into His safety, if I am his newest foundling, what can I ever hope to be?

Does He give me a special name? Some reminder that while He is busy, there is something He has given me to do?

Yes. Christ takes me down from His shoulders after rescuing me, leads me to the safe pasture and whispers in my ear at Mass about the little bells. That I may be the newest, the least studied, rescued from obscurity and storms. I may indeed be still shivering from those storms of life and wondering how all my problems will be solved. I may be timid at times, seeing the great wisdom all around me from the wise teachers he has given me.

What is there to do but be silent and learn, I ask? Then after a time of learning, He whispers that while it is true that I am just rescued, he will give me a little gift so that I will not be lost again. Like the beautiful little bells of Mass that sweep our poor temporal minds into thoughts of Heaven, he whispers that I shall become His little bell. That, like the Mass bells, I will not last forever, for only He can take us to Heaven. While I shall never be the great teachers I am so fortunate to have, I will have a little gift, a special calling. I shall be the little bell, He whispers, plucking one from the heavens and placing it around my neck.

If I am careful, and stay within the safety of His love, my gift will be to remember and remind others of all those He seeks out that are poor, lost, starving, abused, hungry, thirsty, imprisoned in spirit, in cells of their own making or behind bars.

He sets me down at my little writing desk and says "Make mention of these, my beloveds". To be a small reminder of His great love, to ring softly, on the right occasion, to watch and wait for signs to point all towards the Heaven of loving others as He loves us, that is the job of the little bell who will not live forever on the earth, but who is Heaven bound. Yet, for now, this little bell will ring, will sing of the Love of God for His most beloved: those who are still lost, and need a little music from Heaven to show them the way.

And what does He whisper to you today? Where are you on the landscape? Safe within decades of a loving family or storm tossed, waiting for rescue? Look to Him, towards Heaven. He may, this very moment, be catching you up on His shoulder so that He can whisper some Heavenly secret to you!

Kathryn Forrester Thro: The Beautiful Mass Bells. A Call To Loving Action

Kathryn Forrester Thro:
The Beautiful Bells of Mass: A Call to Action.

How the bells at Mass remind us to go out into the world with joy and love! I am a little bell, who cannot do anything at all, of myself. Yet in the Mass, as the great quote tells us, "We consume Christ, so that He consumes us!" In a world with so many things competing for our attention, at Mass we can look upon and venerate a portrait of Christ or a statue of The Blessed Virgin Mary, and we can be inspired towards loving action.
The beautiful and mysterious wonders of all the virtues of The Blessed Virgin Mary are so relevant in today's world. Mary always points us towards her Son, Jesus Christ, and His call to loving action.

Mary's heart is virtuous in love. She points towards Christ's love for the poor and dis-enfranchised. People of different faiths all over the world respect and venerate Our Lady. She is not only Queen of Love but also of justice.

October is a month set aside to remember women and children who have been abused and battered. The Blessed Virgin's heart cries out for the poor women, the single mothers who live in terrible circumstances, who need courage to ask for help. Shelters all over the country are filled to capacity, and according to statistics, these shelters only see three percent of the women and children living under the shadow of abuse, negligence, hunger and homelessness.

If we are truly members of Christ's Body, then we will feel the urgency of the needs of others not living in comfort. Does not our own body react when even its least member is hurting? If we stumble and fall, stubbing only our "baby toe", do we not flinch in sharp pain? How much more then, should we who are members of Christ, feel the deeper pain of those who live in fear, pain, poverty or loneliness? These circumstances of our fellow human beings should pierce us as they pierce the heart of Christ and of His Blessed Mother. In a world full of vulgar images and self-centeredness, they point to a better way.

We must, we must look out from our windows and see the world as it is: potentially beautiful, yes, but with so much work to be done in the fields of love.
Sometimes we can only do the smallest thing, but just as Christ turned a few loaves and fishes into a large, communal meal, miracles can happen and each response to the smallest request can be a new miracle.

If we can take time to listen to beautiful music devoted to Christ and His Blessed Mother, attend Mass with an open heart, then we will not be able to resist the great calling to do what we can, however little, with great devotion.

Let us be like the beautiful bells at mass, the little bells signaling God's Holiness!
Their ring, their singular sounds of joy can become a call to action.


Love is always more powerful than circumstances. St. Paul said that we fight not against flesh, but against powers and principalities. God always wins with love.
The world can be transformed by love in action. We can do nothing of ourselves. I am nothing, I know nothing, I have nothing...without Christ. With Christ, I can do all things.

"In Christ there is no male or female" an oft -forgotten scripture. Women and precious, innocent children who are battered and abused can find a great advocate in The Blessed Virgin and most importantly, in our Heavenly Father and In His Son, who bore our sorrows and wounds on the Cross and conquers them, so this day, in loving actions and prayer.

Kathryn Forrester Thro : Remember the children

Kathryn Forrester Thro: A Prayer to Remember the children. Some children walk barefoot on the earth. How many times are we told to "put ourselves in" someone else's shoes? How sad that some little ones lack life's basic needs such as this, and are prone to even more diseases because they are unprotected.
Please remember the little ones in your prayers and actions. There are so many ways to help and to connect. Love in action is the best prayer of all. If we are all one in the Body of Christ, then should we not feel the urgency of these needs felt daily by His beloved children?
Kathryn Forrester Thro
Mary's Joy (a helping hands link) Matching those in need with those who can help.

A Sonata
A Sonata,
copyright 1994,
Kathryn Forrester Thro ,
Poet Laureate Emeritus of Virginia

In the gardens of the Fountainbleau,
night danced upon the water. Desire,
ending in the afternoon, went singing to
itself and poured its thousand waxen

candles to a single flame, expired into
sepia's cool hands, so that my poor poet's
pen could write of higher things; blue ice ink
of the meeting of two minds, transcending

earth, orbital rhythmic dance, our lonely
hymn a spired dream, faith's honeycomb
poured within the gates, music of the water spheres,

sonatas of all saints, gold cities
beneath our feet and orchids, singing, finally
a cappella, what they tried to tell us all along.

*************************************************************

Kathryn Forrester Thro supports Pro Life Movement

How precious are the lives of the innocent unborn. No health care reform can include a disregard for their innocent lives. We must support the work of Pro Life groups who do all they can to support young Mothers in a world that is often unkind to those living in poverty and point to alternatives to abortion.