Category Archives: All Things Catholic
As An Eagle
Lord, Most High,
Most Good,
Most Holy,
As an eagle, soar our nation’s skies,
Look down and take pity on a people losing their way.
See us as we struggle.
See our deceivers.
See our cherished deceptions.
See our broken law.
The weight of haughty deception,
Oppresses a people,
Fearing the gift of Life.
It is hard to juggle our many gods.
To our folly,
Mammon has supplanted our love for You.
Resisting Your Love.
We choose Death
As an answer to Life.
We think the blessing, a curse,
And the curse, a blessing, nay, a right,
Negation the same as something, someone.
Give Your People Your eagle’s wings,
To scale the heights
With You.
Carry us on Your strong pinions
To safety in the clefts of the Rock.
Hide us in Your Sacred Wounds.
With an Eagle’s talons,
Swoop upon the Enemy
Who carries off our young.
Lord, Most High,
Most Good,
Most Holy,
Carry us on eagle ‘s wings to the safety of Your bosom,
Your Truth.
I’m Doing the Best I Can Do
I say it so often,
“I am doing the best I can do.”
My heart breaks,
For I desire to do all for You,
Yet, I am full of myself,
And You seem silent.
I am still of the earth
And aspire to heaven.
I am so common,
Yet You call me “Beloved”,
And “Child of God”.
My end draws near,
As it does for all men.
Many count their days endless,
And take no account.
What of my end?
Do I please You,
Who number my days,
And promise endless life?
Abandonment draws me
To Your Heart.
Do everything for me,
And in peace
I shall rest in You,
Endless Love of countless days,
Receive me.
by Joann Nelander
Today is the memorial of St. Bernard who wrote:
“The faithful know how much need they have of Jesus and Him crucified; but though they wonder and rejoice at the ineffable love made manifest in Him, they are not daunted at having no more than their own poor souls to give in return for such great and condescending charity. They love all the more, because they know themselves to be loved so exceedingly… ”
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 7, http://www.ccel.org.
Explanations of the Psalms by Saint Ambrose
From the Explanations of the Psalms by Saint Ambrose, bishop
The man Christ Jesus, the one mediator between God and men
Via divineoffice.org
Brother cannot redeem brother, but a man will redeem man. No one can give to God the ransom for himself nor the price of his soul’s redemption. Christ is saying: What have I to fear in the day of evil? What can do me harm if I do not need a redeemer but am myself the redeemer of all mankind? Shall I free others, yet tremble for myself? See, I shall make all things new, so as to surpass even the love and devotion of brothers. Where a brother, born of the womb, cannot redeem, suffering as he does from the infirmity of a common nature, yet a man will redeem, that man of whom it is written: The Lord will send them a man who will save them; the man who said of himself: You seek to kill me, a man who has spoken the truth to you.
He is a man, yet who will recognize him? Why will no one recognize him? Because, as there is one God, so there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He alone will redeem man, showing love greater even than that of brothers. He poured out his blood for strangers, as no one is able to do for a brother. He did not spare his own body in redeeming us from sin, but gave himself as the redemption of all, and Paul the apostle is a true witness to him: I speak the truth and do not lie.
But why will this man be the only redeemer? Because no one can equal him in the love he showed in laying down his life for his own poor servants. Nor can anyone equal him in sinlessness, for all men are ruled by sin, and all are victims of the fall of the first Adam. He alone is chosen to redeem, for he alone cannot be subject to that age-old sin. So let us understand by “the man” the one who took upon himself the condition of man in order to crucify in his own flesh the sin of all, and to cancel by his own blood the debt owed by all: the Lord Jesus.
You may ask: How can we say that brother cannot redeem when the man we are discussing has said: I shall declare your name to my brothers? But it was not as our brother but as the man Christ Jesus, in whom God dwelt, that he forgave our sins. For it is written that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. God was in the man Christ Jesus, of whom alone it was said: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It was not, therefore, as a brother but as the Lord that he dwelt among us in the flesh.
I Am
Your grandeur overwhelms me.
You lavish your splendor,
Even on the ordinary,
Like grass upon the meadow,
And tears welling from the heart.
Where can I look that You are not?
Even the fallow field,
Awaits another day,
As virgin in repose,
Seeing in needful desire,
A time of promise and plenty.
You are written on our hearts.
We perceive You near,
Though hidden.
Terrible and tender,
You are unknowable,
Unless You give the means of knowing.
The universe though draped
In the garb of galactic might and majesty,
Does not know that it is.
Yet, the sentient child
Plays at Your side.
Men, too busy,
Brush by You on the street.
While the nursing babe
Finds You in steady supply.
Too grand!
Too glorious!
Blinded by the refulgence of Your sublimity,
I cover my eyes,
Yet peek with hope
To glimpse You passing.
In the mist of Your Mystery,
You are!
You are!
You are!
I know,
Because I am,
And You whisper and shout
Revealing,
I AM THAT I AM.
© 2016 Joann Nelander
In Humble Expectation
My Jesus, I wait in humble expectation,
For the fulfillment of Your desires for me.
The Father wills,
That You be all in all in me
What will I look like,
When You fully reign in my heart?
How have I distorted Your Image?
How do I hold You at bay?
The most beautiful monstrance,
Without You at its center, is empty.
Shine out of me.
Be the heart of me.
Be Lord of this manor.
Be heart, hearth and home.
Draw the world to Your Table.
Feed the world with your Holy Bread.
Flesh and Blood, You,
Penetrate the Gift of Life.
With ever new hope in me,
You wait to fulfill all You Promise.
You are my Sweet Salvation
Given as unmerited and undeserved gift.
Believing and bowing low,
I am lifted!
Touching the hem of Your garment
My faith finds Your favor.
Holiness of the forgiven sinner,
Live the fullness of Your Life in me.
© 2016 Joann Nelander
Be Holy! 