The Captured Gaze: St. Bernadette In Ecstasy, Seeing Our Lady

The Captured Gaze

(Saint Bernadette in Ecstasy, Seeing Our Lady)

The camera flash, a sharp and sudden flare,

Did not distract the girl, transfixed in prayer.

She kneels alone, though lights and people fill the space,

A heavenly wonder shone upon her face.

The Rosary beads slipped from her loosened hand,

Her soul was absent, in a holier land.

Her gaze is fixed where no one else can see,

On a memory from the chestnut tree.

The photographer stole a shadow, cold and faint,

A moment’s look that testified to Saint.

She dreams of Massabielle, the damp, rough stone,

And a beautiful Lady who made herself known.

The hardships of the Cachot, she had borne,

But for this vision, she felt truly reborn.

She offered up her simple, humble claim,

To the pure, true utterance of Our Lady’s name.

Now in this picture, her true life we find,

The worldly work and suffering left behind.

The captured ecstasy, a gift from God's own grace,

Reflected in the stillness of her face.

By Anne Hendricks, 1995

Revelry and Reflection, 1995, 2025

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