Category Archives: Catholic

Burial Oil

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Make of me an anointing oil

To be pored into the wounds

That bore my name.

 

Who am I,

How do You count me

In Your universe?

I am nothing,

A wisp,

Mere smoke

Clouding Your heavens,

And yet,

You mount Your Cross

For me.

 

For me,

The nails pierce Holy Flesh,

For me, You are lifted,

And the Cross

Crashed with Your pain

Into the ground

Over the bones

Of my First Parents,

A skull, fittingly,

A remembrance of their fall,

And our perduring Fault.

 

My tears flow with Mary’s

My hair hides me

From hungry eyes,

That I might be for You,

Here in this place and time.

 

You thirst for me.

Now, may I satisfy You,

By willing our union,

And embracing

My death in yours.

 

Oil and comfort,

Comfort only

The dead can know,

To be shrouded away

Until the Day.

 

Awakening

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You stretch before me
In wondrous expanse.
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 terrain,
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 of Justice, 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