Fear not to approach
And behold the child.
See, it is you!
He holds His treasure
Cradled in the arms
Of His Only Begotten Son.
No memory of sins forgiven
No repugnance,
For past crimes vanish,
Banished, by His flaming Love.
The Spirit and the Bride
Say “Come!”
©2012 Joann Nelander
If heaven can be made more glorious,
Make it so, my Lord.
If the honor and respect, I show,
Sinner, though I am,
Can render
Your saints more glory,
For the light
They shine on men,
Make it so, my Lord.
If the blood of martyrs,
Can again be received
Before Your throne,
Mingled with the Blood of Christ,
That coursed their veins,
And flowed out
As rivers.
To wash the Nations
And praise Your Holy Name,
Make it so, my Lord.
All time is Now
In Your Eternity.
Your battles,
Though waging on earth,
Have all been won,
And presented to You
In Your Son.
"Thy Kingdom come!"
You make it so , O my Lord.
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
My Child,
What will you worship today?
My sun warms you and brightens your day.
My plants and animals sustain you.
My ground yields it’s treasure
To build
And energize your cities.
Rivers of beauty
Play across the land,
Teeming abundantly.
You perceive
The wonder of creation,
Yet, your love
Does not go
Beyond the creature,
To see, or seek the Creator.
You do not want
To meet the artist.
You do worship.
You worship what you love.
There is little room for Me.
I am to you a thermostat
For your comfort,
Under your control.
Desiring love
I weep.
Here I am
Within reach.
Stretch out your heart
And I am yours.
My child,
What will you worship today?
Copyright 2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
Love and praise hold hands.
Happy hearts rejoice.
Song rises from the multitude,
As lives lived in faith believing.
The Just sing with their being,
Resplendent and resounding love.
Praise embodied in saintly flesh.
New song, New Day,
New creation,
In harmony with Heaven
A symphony of faithful, forgiven witness.
Alleluia.
Copyright 2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
Lord, make my ears
Hungry for Your Word.
Give me a living relationship
With Your Father,
Who Fed You
In solitude.
May every Word He Speaks
Resound in my spirit.
May it nourish me,
Sustaining me,
As all, worshiping the world,
Suffer famine,
For want of Faith.
With Bread comes
Health and vigor,
Power to feed others
With the Food You give me
Daily at Your Table.
I listen for Your call
I listen for Your footsteps.
I hear You,
In the breaking
Of Your Word.
Bread for the hungry world.
The Lord’s joy
Is my strength.
He persuades my heart
By gentleness.
His mercy is a fountain
Of inner mirth,
Springing up in all seasons,
To temper my sorrow,
To pour oil into my wounds,
To salt my friendships
And to delight the Father,
Who sees me
Running after His Son,
And dancing with David’s abandonment.
May I be the dimple
In Your smile,
Appealing as the uplifted arms
Of a child,
And the innocent sleep
Of a baby.
Gladness be my swaddling,
That You may
Impart to me
The power the weak
Have to touch
The Heart of God,
Accepting always
His Loving will.
Copyright Joann Nelander 2012
Thomas wanted reality.
Thomas wanted answers.
Thomas wanted undeniable proof.
He trusted his mind.
He trusted his senses.
He walked by sight,
But feared to trust
The witnesses of Resurrection.
A God, with wounds of Love, understood.
A God, marked by our disbelief,
Stood before him,
In plain sight.
Thomas finger my wounds.
Feel the warmth of human flesh.
Feel the throbbing of My Heart,
Bounding against
Your hand in My Side.
Thomas, you sought only
The trappings of reality.
Am I real now,
Real enough for you,
My friend?
Standing, face to face,
Before I Am,
Bought to his knees
By living, breathing, proof,
He stands in our place.
Humbled by faith’s awakening,
Before the True Witness,
Senses satisfied,
Content, now, and forever,
He’ll follow blindly,
Unto death,
Into eternity.
“My Lord and my God.”
Copyright Joann Nelander 2012
All rights reserved
You are inconvenient Truth.
I want to believe myself alive.
I tout myself spiritual.
You are the spoiler
In the midst
Of my presumptions.
I run with the world
And You fish for me.
Cast your net after me.
I duck the toss,
Scamper out of reach.
Though its weave
Be that of Love,
It’s warp be reason,
Faith the weft
That elevates,
I fear your net as chains.
If I only knew
Who it is
Who is constantly
Trolling the Deep
To save me.
If I could see
That I am blinded
In the chaos.
Trapped in ancient lies,
Ensnared in deception’s trenches.
Tides and currents,
Direct my movement.
I am not free.
I flow
Caught in the embrace
Of the masses,
Pitiful humanity,
Chained by tumultuous sensation ,
And arrogant bravado,
Regardless of Truth’s freedom.
Relentless Pursuer,
Plot the routes of my escape
To wait for me
In the shallows
And guide me.
Then encircled
By Your arms,
Lift me beyond myself.
Deliver me, O, Fisher
From the waters
In which I drown.
Draw me up
To Yourself
Separating the flotsam,
And jetsam,
Counting me Your own.
© 2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
In flight
Into Egypt
Hungry,
Hurried,
Yet at peace.
You pass my way.
Because you are holy
We are worlds apart.
Yet you touch me
By your plight.
You must eat.
You must drink.
Rest a moment
Under my tent.
Holy visitors,
Let me wash your feet.
Your smiles
Enter my heart
As a symphony
Stay the night.
Bring the star
From heaven
To light my adobe.
Dwell forever
Here in Spirit
Though you must hurry
On your way.
Journey on,O, Protector,
O Mother, O Child.
With me,
In your hearts,
Now, I wait
For you forever.
I tucked a little rattle
Under His blanket.
Perhaps, He’ll hear me
In the sounds,
A remembrance,
Like a prayer,
In the rattling of beads.
By Joann Nelander
You, the indwelling God of the faithful,
Have called me
"The apple of Your eye",
Look, therefore,
Out upon my world,
And bless those about me,
Good and bad.
Bless them not,
Because I see and intercede,
But because You see,
And, beholding their misery,
Reach out.
Being that You are Compassion,
Change my world,
Person by person,
Day by day.
See through me,
As the pupil of Your eye.
Use me as Your window
On my world.
Your Presence in me
Is as the Sun in the heavens,
Shining out,
And penetrating even the clouds
I place in Your way.
"In Your Light,
We see Light. "
Copyright Joann Nelander 2011
All rights reserved
My many sins
Have gone up in flames,
And all that is left,
You deem holy.
©2012 Joann Nelander
Forsaking the Land of Shadows, yet again,
And prostrate before You,
I enter with my candle,
Wick, barely alive,
Smoldering,
Awaiting the gentle breeze,
That will kindle my flame
To blaze forth, anew.
Praise rises in my soul,
As a lifetime of thanks given,
Recall to memory
The reason for my trust.
Can Faith be called blind,
When a thousand thousand yesterdays
Form the foundation of our friendship?
Now, I look upon You,
Upon the Altar of Adoration.
Beauty captures my attention.
The monstrance, a delight to my eye,
All aglow,
As it catches the early rays of morning.
Golden shafts stream from its center,
Whispering "Glory."
The pedestal,
Ornate with pomegranates, grapes and lilies,
Celebrate the gift of Your Creation.
Yet, You, in Your splendid Humility,
Reside in true beauty, Unadorned, and at rest,
Your work accomplished,
Awaiting only my disfigurement.
What will You with me?
Transfigure in longed for alchemy of Spirit.
By heartfelt confession and remorse,
At Your Word,
Spoken in Persona Christi,
I wash my robes clean
In the Blood of the Lamb.
You do not horde Your beauty,
But send it forth,
To renew all creation,
And, forgetting not the least,
Remember me.
Copyright 2012 Joann Nelander
St. Gertrude Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, I accept this sleep in the spirit of love with which Thou didst sanctify it when Thou didst deign to sleep in Thy most sacred humanity, to the glory of God the Father, and for the salvation of all mankind; beseeching that, in union with Thee, it may tend to increase in grace and glory of all Thine Elect in heaven, on earth, and in purgatory.
Amen.
Old year passes,
Becoming yet another ghost,
Withered as leaves,
Crumbled, and carried aloft
By winter winds,
Too soon scattered
By the breezes of Time.Is it truly spent,
Dead and long forgotten,
Living but in memory?
May not reflection
Call it from the grave,
Uncover the gain
Hold it fast
To live again?How has its many waters
Blessed thee and me,
As sacred signs?
Will it, as muse, retain a power
For its having been,
And then no more?What saints and angels
Sent my way,
Colored its day?
In sorrow,
Who came to hold my hand?
In joy,
Who shared my hearth?Were there hugs, and smiles,
And laughter to tilt the scale of grief?
Can kisses and embraces be resurrected,
That fires of love be stoked
To warm and blaze anew?Has my thanksgivings
Been recorded in the pyre,
Written in the embers now glowing
As tiger eyes flashing from the ash.Years come, doomed , too soon to go,
But let them not hurry
To a crypt without a wake.
Drink the happy wine of memory,
Sip, as the seasons turn.
Contemplate and savor
The seasons of your soul.©2011 Joann Nelander
Clinging, clinging to You,
As a leaf clasping the vine
With mouth pressed
And soul hungry,
Receiving in its will
Sustenance and vigor.
Stress, season, time,
And the tempters three,
World, Devil and fleshy me,
Turn, test and try resolve.
Clinging, I cling,
Clasping fast,
For only the glue of love
Suffice as bond,
To quell and conquer,
The wanton, the unruly.
For the Conqueror abides in me,
I cling to the Almighty Three.
Copyright 2011 Joann Nelander
O Lord, I have no doubt
Of Faith’s fulfillment.
I no longer ask "when,"
For passing days,
But flavor and add splendor,
To my Sabbath Rest,
My dream of Love unending.
If weary of this wasteland
Spring returns with leaf and bud.
Birds’ refrain and cricket chirp
Pull back the curtain,
Time and Sin descended,
To light on promise
Dawning of New Day.
Copyright 2011 Joann Nelander
Who will come to the stable
On Christmas Day?
And what will they take away?
Wise men, steadfast and earnest, came,
Instead of palace music,
They heard the donkey brae.
A lowly sound and sight,
Yet their wonder unallayed.
Many come rejoicing,
To behold the Newborn King,
Bowing low,
While angels sing.
Christ comes for all
But not all come.
Some come, behold, then fall away,
Being rootless, they merrily go their way.
Father God prepared a voice
To announce His Only Word,
A messenger, born before, to go before.
Another child, spared Ramah’s plight
To live and pierce Sin’s long night
John, O, John, still cries, “Repent!”
Prepare if you would follow.
At Jerusalem’s Gate,
Many cried, “Messiah,”
Who would soon cry, “Crucify.”
Whose will will you do,
When the music fades in life?
Pride prides itself on ‘my way,’
Confounds with will and strife.
Without a ready, willing heart,
Nothing changes Christmas Day.
Corrupt hearts go on corrupting,
All the while the kingly Infant cries,
As throughout His life,
“I am the Way.”
Whose heart will live in yours
As angelic songs fade away.
Will you simply leave the stable
To follow your own way?
Come, O come, rejoicing!
Praying for a change.
Receive the Babe within your Heart.
Beg Him forever stay.
©2010 Joann Nelander
Crayon and pencil by Sr. Grace Remington, OCSO Copyright 2005, Sisters of the Mississippi Abbey
Mother Eve, waiting long,
Your bones resting in the earth,
At Adam’s side,
From which you were taken,
Waiting, waiting for the Woman.
Sustained in weary life by a Promise.
Enduring the grave,
Counting the centuries,
Waiting for Good News.
The Virgin is with Child. Rejoice!
©2011 Joann Nelander All rights reserved
This painting is so consoling, I just have to share it again since Advent brings us closer and closer to the precious moment of our Savior’s birth. He comes to save Fallen Man, and with such a gentle hand.
“Virgin Mary Consoles Eve”
Crayon and pencil by Sr. Grace Remington, OCSO
Copyright 2005, Sisters of the Mississippi Abbey
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