Category Archives: All Things Catholic

Fully Human

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Just think about it, the conception of our Savior!
Mary had a choice, and chose the Will of God.
Fiat! “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum,”
“Be it done to me according to Your Word.”

Mary, the Women, the New Eve, welcomed her Son,
The Son of God, into her womb,
Into our world.

From this moment until His Death,
Jesus, Emmanuel, God with Us,
Dwelt on earth.

He lived as one cell,
An egg, a fertilized egg,
Fertilized by the action of the Holy Spirit.
He lived and grew,
Soon a tiny cluster of cells,
Then embryo,
Then fetus,
And at all times,
And stages was human
And was God with Us.

He dwelt on Earth,
Not somewhere ethereal,
Outside of our reality,
Outside Time and Space.
He was wholly human and divine.
He was here in a womb,
Living, and growing,
As God deemed Man do.

Why do we not cherish
Each and every human life,
That God choses to come into this world?
He deemed humanity worth and worthy
Of His, Life, Death and Presence,

Copyright 2016 Joann Nelander

Under the Fig Tree

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“I Saw You Under the Fig Tree.”

All our yesterdays are forgotten
With the rush of Tomorrow.
All the words fade away.
Images are fleeting.
All praise passes into oblivion.
The compliments lost,
As unrecorded history.

All things are sand
Falling through the fingers of the Future.
None endure the winds of Time.

So, what of me?
What is the why of me?
Why do You long for me?
I feel your desire pleading
In all about me.

“I saw you under the fig tree.”
What did you see of me, O Lord?
Did you see my yearning?
Were You witness to my sin?
Did you hear the prayer I whispered,
The call of my heart.

Did you see resolve written on my face?
Did you see the love
Swelling my heart?
What did you see of me, Oh Lord,
Under the fig tree?

Because You saw me
Under the fig tree,
My heart opens to see You.
You reveal a world and love
Beyond all that is matter,
Beyond all that once mattered,
Surpassing all that is,
A world of God ,
A world of God in all,
And for all,
Dying to live in all.

I didn’t see You,
Until now,
This precious Now,
Surviving my mortality,
With the reason of my being,
With the holy vision of Thou.

© 2016 Joann Nelander

All My Hope

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All My Hope

All my hope is in You.
All my hope is in Your great Love.
All my hope is in Your great Mercy.

Seeing but darkly,
You are my Light.
Clouds conceal Your brilliance,
But Faith lifts the veil,
And I behold You.
Hidden in my very being.

Despite my smallness,
You dignify my every breath and heart beat,
Giving me Your holy inspiration,
Hiding me in Your Heart,
Cleansing me by Your Blood.

How could I but hope?
You spend Yourself on me.
You are my treasure,
Mercy purer than gold,
Love greater than diamonds,
And I know, without doubt,
You treasure me.

© 2016 Joann Nelander

Thanks Be to God

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For what am I thankful? How about that I am.
Yes, I am here, a creature,one among others, willed into existence by the God of All, and He constantly calls me to know Him. I am free, in other words.

Yes, I am free, free to be free of God, if I so choose.
There it is again, scary freedom, free to be ignorant of the One Who calls, the One Who Loves.

He calls through His creation, look at Me, I Am Truth. I Am Beauty. I Am Love. His call proclaims me not one among others, but His one and only. Be not only being but exceedingly blessed. Be, by faith, and “Amen”, My Son. Reign as priest,and prophet and King.

For what am I thankful? I am thankful that I am grateful. With my eyes, I have seen,and with my heart, I have said, “Amen”. I answer “Amen” with my every heartbeat, my very breath. With all the moments of my life, I call to my God, my “Amen”. I am Son, caught up in Triune Being. He wears my “Yes” as eternal glory.

He is, and I am all thanksgiving.

copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

One Last Touch

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Lord, You have been growing me.
It’s been 75 years plus a bit, since my conception.
All those years and not one day without love.

Not one day without the play of wind,
Or warmth of golden beam,
Or sustenance given though unseen.

Not one day without a kiss of sun,
Or breeze,
Or butterfly.

Not one day the more or less than You decree,
Simply the glee
Of being me.

Lord, You have been growing me.
I count my days blessed and witnessed from above,
The stuff as given and mysterious as stars.

When I am fully grown,
Incline to lift me from the earth,
And with Mercy’s parting splendor,
Render one last touch.

© 2016 Joann Nelander

What Have I?

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What have I, My Lord,
But my beating heart,
My pulsing blood,
My seemingly useless toil,
The tears and sweat,
That mark my life?

Yet, I persevere,
I fight,
I cry,
I shout through the Night.
Though in the tumult,
And the rancor of holocaust,
My screams scarcely rise above a whisper.

I make of my heart a sanctuary,
A resting place for my God.
I long to comfort You,
For my wounds pierce Your Heart,
And tear Your Most Innocent Flesh.

It is You Who are rejected
In the womb of the world,
Women crying,
“Get out you untimely thing.”
Men forsaking love once declared.

Come here to me.
I will cry with You.
I will tend Your wounds,
Hold Your Hallowed Hand.

Each morn anew
I will embrace my lot.
My thoughts will meet ridicule,
But the stripes,
Fall anew on You.

Soldiers of the heart
Swell Your growing ranks,
As mere men take arms
Against Legion.
Each a knight born of a Revelation,
Your Love,
Your Faithfulness,
Your Victory.

© 2016 Joann Nelander