Monthly Archives: August 2014

No Empty Dream

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Lamenting, I quit my case.

Sorrowing, my complaints lie with me

In dust and ashes.

The plaintiff has become defendant.

I rest the case I brought against You.

What have I proven?

That I never knew You?

That I never sought You?

Counterfeits sufficed to fill my belly.

There was always another dream on the horizon.

Tomorrows pretended to satisfy my emptiness.

The chase was the gambit that became the game.

Before You showed me mercy,

You showed me Me

Not the Me of mirrors, but the Me of my heart,

That shrunken pigmy of diminishing proportion.

Among Men, there is no forgiveness like Yours.

If judged by Men, I would be meted punishment

By the self-righteously righteous,

While the unrighteous, would applaud my vice

And welcome me at the hearth,

No forgiveness necessary, where sin is no sin.

As gift, the clarity of Day, dawned suddenly,

You appeared with Light as Your garment,

In Your Light I was all Darkness,

Pretense dissipated as Your Sun rose.

The world appeared

Not as a prize but as a wonder.

Nature didn’t dictate; it served.

The heart of mothers where turned back to their children.

And You reigned as King.

I would have fainted away,

Had not the Good Thief stood by Your side.

He smiled my way,

Eyes twinkling at the memory of his meeting You upon Your Cross.

Assurances asked, assurances given.

Simple eternal words.

Coming full circle, I rest upon Your arm,

You lift up my head and incline to comfort me.

Mercy smiles on my repentant heart,

And plans for me a future full of hope.You Who laid the foundation of the Earth,

Plot a course for me through the wilderness of the world.

My pilgrimage from sin to saint

Leads through Two Hearts bound by a Mystery uniting Heaven and Earth.

Birthed anew in Baptism,

Restored again in Reconciliation,

Your grace acts on me,

Your grace acts in me.

All grace that waited upon my willing.

My will is now that of a child.

I follow at Your side, learning Your ways.

Your Words are my food and my fullness.

Heaven is no longer an empty dream, but a Promise.

From You lips on the Cross, piercing my heart.

“Father forgive them.

They know not what they do.”

On Eucharist

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Reflection on St. Augustine’s, “I seemed to hear your voice from on high: ‘I am the food of the mature: grow, then, and you shall eat me. You will not change me into yourself like bodily food; but you will be changed into me’.”

On Eucharist

O Christ, I receive Thee
That I might become Thee.
I desire to be as You would have me,
To be, Christ, living Your Life,
In the time and place and space
That is me,
Soul and matter one,
And wed to my All Holy Three.

Come, O come to me, My Christ.
My blind eyes see but bread.
Hope lights my darkness.
Faith assures me
Of what I can not now behold.

You are the food,
That transforms my being
To Your Being,
Though the steps and stages
Be but measured.
You respect my frailty,
Adding strength upon strength,
That the common might be wed
To the Magnificent
Without my dissolution..

Only in union can I live
“Thy Will be done,”
As You, the Son.
Grow me, grace me,
That I might become mature.
Sanctify this soul
So unlike Your own,
That free of Sin.
I be as the moon to You, O Sun.

I want to become,
To be of You,
And by You completely transformed.
I pray that Your Holy Spirit
Conform me to the Will of the Father,
That I may answer
As Mother Mary, “Fiat.”.

In Fire’s purifying ardor
Remove my dross.
Make me malleable.
Impress Yourself on me.
Ready me, as melted wax,
That I may receive the image,
That You conceived for me.
That with all my being,
I may spend myself totally
On the Father’s All Holy Will,
Answering with the voice of Christ
One great “Amen.”

As a desert penitent
May I shed my tears for Your cause in me,
And in the world of souls,
For whom You shed Your blood.
May I complete my time on this earth
Running the race with You as my Way.

Although I am all effort,
And that pleases You,
A thousand efforts
Do not make the slightest grace.
So grace me, Beloved,
That the Father will delight
To see His Only Son in me.

More than a Conqueror,
You become my very being.
May I live my life in Your Life.
Come, O Eucharist,
O, Sanctifier of my soul.

By Joann Nelander

Folly’s Zeal

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Immodest child,
Immoderate man,
So, you think to slay dragons,
By wit and prowess,
Armed with nature’s sword.

You think it cruel
And mean-spirited,
That a “good” God
Choose to temper you,
By merciful humiliation.

He thwarts your inventions,
And plans of glory.
“All for God,” your dream,
Yet you are at the center,
With your well-chosen cross.

“Indiscreet zeal”
Immature man,
Undone by impatience,
Intemperance,
And swollen pride.

Each day God waits
Supplies the Way,
Plans a day
Filled to the brim
With humility’s simplicity.

Abandonment,
Acceptance,
Both arrow and bow,
To hit the mark
Marked out by Love.

copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

Acknowledgement:

In a chapter called, “Immature Zeal” Ralph Martin points out the effectiveness overtime of “ordinary grace” and “common life,” in his book, The Fulfillment of All Desires, a Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints.

Ralph quotes Sts. Teresa of Avila and Bernard to point out our folly in relying inordinately on ourselves to become holy and to do great things for God, both early in the spiritual life, and later on, when temptations are subtler.

Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival

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It’s time once again for Sunday Snippets. We are Catholic bloggers sharing weekly our best posts with one another.  Join us to read and/or contribute. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival. Make sure that the post links back to here, and leave a link to your  snippets post on our host, RAnn’s, site, This, That and the Other Thing.

My Posts for the past week:

Entombment

For Fear Apart 

Flower in the Sun

AWAKENING 

 

 

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With You In Mind

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Still unfolding in Time,
God built the Universe
With you in mind.
Matter abounds in precise measure,
Yet only mind cares
To count the treasure.

The Nature of Reality
Weighs only upon Man.
Mind, immaterial,
Counts on Science to understand.
But mensuration once obtained
Must be thought to think things through,
But since a thought can’t be weighed or measured.
How scientifically construed?

Mind, in this life,
On matter dependent,
Ideas, ethereal,
Yet vaulted resplendent.
Archiving the conceptual
Memories bound to a brain,
Quantifying the great
And trifles mundane.

Man alone of all Creation
Takes the world apart
To see why the tickings
And the tocks.
Challenges, stirred
By matter-less imagination,
End when no greater thought
Can be thought in our machinations.

Only then do we arrive
At the God we accuse,
Of being a non-being All-being
And betray and abuse.
Still He points to the stars
And Man more numerous,
Assuring His intention
Was never injurious.

Life from the stars?
Far-flung seeds of  Creation?
Enduring, maturing, while from the beginning,
The God in the dock willing our Salvation.

By Joann Nelander

Awakening

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You stretch before me
In wondrous expanses.
Where are your limits, O Lord?
Where the measure
That contains Your domain?

The ethereal sky,
Hugging the mountains,
Kissing earth,
And spilling love across its plains,
Proclaims a God of beauty.

Hidden,yet revealed,
In the minuscule and mighty,
You peer from clouds
That radiate streams of Your glory.

You walk the waters,
Stride across mountains,
Blow like desert sands,
Seamlessly knitting terrane,
Texture, color, and contour
In organic harmony,
To announce Your Presence.

A world of darkness
Awakens each morning,
From its chrysalis,
As hope and promise courts
The sons and daughters of Man.

Quarried, cut and polished,
A darkened crystal,
Receives Your Light.
The soul of Man,
Focuses Your splendor,
And by grace,
You shine out in creations’ purpose.

Your Just Sun, O Father,
Crosses the great divide,
To shine on a “no one”,
And “no people”
To stretch before the angels
The measure of Your Mercy.

Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander