Song of the Sparrow by Murray Bodo

First published: Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1976

Genre(s): Poetry

Subgenre(s): Lyric poetry; meditation and contemplation

Core issue(s): Catholics and Catholicism; prayer; service; trust in God

Overview

Murray Bodo’s Song of the Sparrow is a meditative journal of poetry and prose that documents the writer’s progress through three seasons—autumn to spring—when nature metaphorically seems to die and then be reborn. Bodo writes of his own efforts to grow spiritually through increased recognition of one’s need to pray more sincerely, to trust in and listen to God, and to serve others.

The journal begins in autumn, when Bodo finds that changes in nature are provoking spiritual musings. To Bodo, autumn is “thought-time,” when falling leaves remind him of mortality and his thoughts are directed heavenward, as prefigured by the deep blue sky above. As the sky becomes more visible, Bodo finds himself more cognizant of birds flying through it, especially sparrows. The writer’s sudden awareness that he has overlooked something quiet, yet ever present—something as common as sparrows—provokes similar awareness of his need to deepen his awareness of the presence of God in his life. “Like the sparrows that have always been in my life, God is so present that I take him for granted.”

Epiphanies like this one are characteristic of much of Bodo’s journal; his short musings and poems on seasons, birds, beaches, and so forth are offered to provoke similar moments of spiritual perception on the part of the reader. As Bodo observes:

The God within me reveals his presence, fleetingly, and all the rest of my days are changed permanently. Something happens that I did not merit and that I cannot explain or communicate. But it is more real than any communicable experience, and I cannot formulate it or capture it in words.

In the autumn section of Bodo’s work, these perceptions usually involve such human failings as pride, callousness, lack of charity, and selfishness. His meditations urge his readers to forgive others and themselves and to trust in God. To reach these goals, Bodo suggests that we reenvision and reinvigorate our prayers as well as devote ourselves more consciously and lovingly toward serving our neighbors. For many, prayer is simply repetition, a magic formula to create whatever is desired; as Bodo suggests, “prayer is not self-analysis but self liberation through concentration and absorption in God.” Done humbly, prayer enables us to hear the still, small voice of God and to recognize his presence in signs, even sparrows.

The winter section of Song of the Sparrow continues Bodo’s observations on praying and trusting in God. For example, Bodo offers a mnemonic for his way of praying—SPORT—as a way of deepening the reader’s prayers. S indicates a need to silence oneself; P stands for purification, letting go of grudges and forgiving wrongs done us; O stands for being open to God, however he chooses to communicate; R stands for responding; and T stands for talking with God. Overall, however, the focus of this section shifts toward serving others. Once again, the season is used to indicate spiritual needs. In winter we want to stay comfortably indoors, away from the cold, but our spiritual welfare requires that we reach out to others in service. Serving others “makes tangible our union with the other, God himself.” Put in more explicitly Christian terms, Bodo posits that our service to others connects us with “the Body of Christ.”

As a poet and a writer, Bodo is aware that his service to others is best done through his writings, which can provide instructions and offer advice and solace to readers in spiritual torment: “I keep writing/ After midnight,/ Hoping I might/ Help you, biting/ Your fingernails,/ Sleepless, afraid.”

In the spring section, Bodo subtly shifts focus from how one can serve others and thereby develop one’s relationship with God to how to maintain that relationship. “The secret,” Bodo observes, “is in letting go and trusting God.” To Bodo, this means surrendering self-obsessions, worries about others, and nagging doubts in order to become more conscious of one’s dependence on God’s providence. Characteristically, Bodo describes this moment of epiphany:

We fight that kind of surrender and resist it. Then one day we wake up and realize that letting go is the only answer. And waking up is pretty much what happens. Everything before that insight was a sleeping away of our lives in fear and trepidation. Then we jump out of bed and start living fully for the first time. Nothing matters from then on but God’s will, and God himself absorbs our failures and our successes, and we praise him no matter what happens.

Spring is an appropriate time for these observations, Bodo contends, because at that time nature seems to be reborn—brighter, cleaner, more joyful. Our trust and reliance on God and our loving service to others gives birth to a deep joy in us as well.

Christian Themes

Three significant Christian themes dominate Song of the Sparrow. These are the separation between God and human beings, the spiritual value of service as a way of connecting with God and cooperating with his grace, and trusting in God as a loving and giving father.

Bodo spends much of his book on the existential loneliness we feel and how much we hunger for some concrete awareness of God. “Turn wherever you may, nothing and no one short of God can satisfy your longing or distract you from that gnawing in the mind and heart which speaks of an emptiness that is yet to be filled.”

The autumn woods call to the writer’s mind his existential emptiness: “I walk in the bleak November woods and I want to believe that I am not alone, that this loneliness is illusion only.” We are all too conscious of how empty we are and how much we want God to fill our emptiness: “And so I reach out and call upon God and I am no longer alone.” As Bodo suggests, God is ever-present; part of our problem as human beings is that we will not accept him on his terms. For example, while we expect a thundering voice from the heavens in answer to our prayers, what we receive is a silent stirring in the heart or an unexpected gift from another person.

Each one of us, whether he realizes it or not, is a living symbol of the presence of God in the world. By who we are and how we act we can either build up or tear down the Kingdom of God. God has chosen to act through men, first through his son, Jesus, and then through all the members of his Mystical Body. That God is alive and well is most evident in those who live through him and with him and in him.

As Bodo puts it, it is in giving these gifts to each other that we thank God for his grace and indicate our willingness to cooperate in his will for us.

Sources for Further Study

Berger, Rose Marie. “Necessary Words.” Review of The Earth Moves at Midnight by Murray Bodo. Sojourners Magazine 33, no. 2 (February 4, 2004): 46. This review of Bodo’s collection of poems about his growing up finds them simple and elegant.

Bodo, Murray. The Place We Call Home: Spiritual Pilgrimage as a Path to God. Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete Press, 2004. The Franciscan priest writes of pilgrimage and describes several of his own.

Bodo, Murray. Poetry as Prayer: Denise Levertov. Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2001. In this biography of another poet, one who was his friend, Bodo offers insights into how he views poetry as a means of enriching and strengthening one’s prayers.

Chase, Elise. Review of The Way of Saint Francis: The Challenge of Franciscan Spirituality for Everyone by Murray Bodo. Library Journal 109, no. 1 (January 1, 1984) 102. A collection of meditations on topics inspired by Saint Francis, including one on the dynamics of psychic death and rebirth.