Category Archives: Catholic
To Love You More
I live to love you more, O Lord.
Until now, O King,
I labored long for little.
I trusted to myself,
And drew life
From diminishing waters.
Famine and draught
Were upon the land,
For Sin had dried the well of plenty.
My nights were beset with worry,
And the day exhausted my meager stores.
I drew my energy
From the food of swine,
Never in short supply,
For the world, the flesh and the devil
Fed upon me,
And left, as my swill, their refuse.
Never satisfied, I cried.
My avarice outstripped my pride.
Only my growing greed kept stride.
Clouds descended
As night became my guide,
For hope is a thing of prayer,
And my prayer ceased
As from the Sun, I’d hide.
Death, the abode of Sin,
Fought to claim its prize,
And I, all but entered in,
Save for a memory,
Gleaned, as I remembered simpler times,
And leaned upon prayers said for me.
How now to thank
That faith-filled lot,
Who pled for me,
And spoke of He
Who bled to free.
I live anew,
Tears, my livery,
Shed in wanting You.
Feasting in abundant banquet,
My bread, Your Body, my Kingly Core,
Now and forever, in Eternity, O, Lord,
I live to love You more.
Copyright 2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
Cardinal Arinzi on the Norm of Communion on the Tongue
What did Cyril of Jerusalem Teach about Receiving the BOC? Does he want …
Abiding All the While
We await Your Second Coming, O Lord.
In reality, You never left us.
Your Body and Blood,
Upon the altar of Your Presence,
Witness to Your People, Your constancy.
Before Your dying upon the Cross,
You prepared a Body for Yourself in the Church,
Embracing those who would soon desert You,
Feeding Your Apostles the very Flesh,
That would so soon be scourged.
Giving Your Chosen, as drink,
The very Blood destined to be poured upon the ground,
Staining pillar and the coarse streets of the city,
Whose people had welcome and acclaimed You,
In Your wonders and power,
Only to decry your claim upon their hearts,
And flee to the side of worldly power and might.
Though You never left us,
How soon we forgot You,
You, Who cannot forget
Those You chose to be Your Body on Earth,
And were called to remember You
Upon at the Table of Your Presence
Transforming bread and wine,
To mend and enable a broken people,
To experience Salvation,
In the Divine Intimacy as friends.
Holy Presence,
Remain always in my heart,
That looking inward,
My stained garment may be purified in penitence,
Bleached white in Your Light,
And my eyes behold Your image as Promise,
Wooing me from world and worry.
May Your Second Coming find me with You
In this world or in the next,
As bride with her Bridegroom,
Your beloved beholding Her Love.
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
Sunrise in High Heaven – Sonrise
Empty the tomb,
The wrappings set aside.
No Body to be found,
Faith in triumph shouts.
It is Easter dawn.
Joy spills or’ heaven’s ledge
As sun rises to high heaven.
Hope blankets earth’s face.
Love penetrates its depth.
A people, newborn,
Called forth to be light.
Witnesses stand forth,
Wrapped about in wedding garb,
They go forth to meet the Groom.
Sonrise in High Heaven!
© 2014 Joann Nelander
