As a child,
Gathering flowers in a meadow,
I spend these hours
By your side, dear Mother.
Happily, you kiss each bloom,
I offer, playfully, to our lips.
Bunching them as a bouquet,
I press them into your hands,
And you, as mother’s do,
Press them to your heart.
Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander
EASTER MORN
Holy Mother Mary,
I invite Your presence in my life.
As you look on my days,
Listen to my prayers,
Watch my growth through the years,
Touch me with the graces
Of.your Motherly prerogative,
You who walked the way of the Cross
With your Holy Son,
From the instant of His Incarnation
In your sacred womb,
Be beside me
In my every moment.
Meet me in my joys and sorrows
And impart your maternal blessing.
May my soul grow holy,
As you rush to lift me,
When I fall,
Just as you interceded
For Jesus in His Passion.
He fell under the weight of my sins,
And you cried out to heaven.
Hear now my heart
Beseeching thee.
Standing by His Cross,
See me in His Suffering
And receive me as your own.
Take the moments,
And all the years,
Of my existence,
In your arms,
As you did the Body of your Son,
When He was lowered from His Cross.
He wrought my Salvation
In that fearsome Hour.
Wrap my years in His shroud
And when I wake,
Rejoice in this,
My Easter morn.
As Pope Francis visits the Holy Land, I offer a prayer as we accompany him in spirit:
Water of Peace
Jesus, enter the waters of our lives.
As at the Jordan,
You made holy
The water of Baptism,
Renew, in all men of good will,
Life, that flows from the God of Heaven,
Your Father, our Father, my Father.
May Your Holiness
Infuse the elements,
That compose all created things.
By the Water,
Cascading from the Temple,
Your pierced, open, and hallowed Side,
Prepare here a place for all men to abide.
Amen
Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander
Joann Nelander
lionessblog.com
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.
© 2014 Joann Nelander
As I walk in Your house,
May I never forget You are Master,
Lord of this domain.
May my thoughts
Spring as fruit upon the vine.
Sustain me, O my Beloved,
With the Bread of angels.
Hallowed Ground of my New Birth,
Give me Your heavenly Water,
That I may never thirst again.
Let it rise within me,
As an eternal spring,
And let it fall from heaven,
Like those “torrents
In the southern desert,”
Sheltered in Your arms,
Covered by the corner of Your mantle,
Fed by the Manna of Your Heavenly Body,
Who could forget to sing You songs of Love?
Copyright 2011 Joann Nelander
All the people of my life,
I place in Your Life.
Living Savior,
One with the Father,
The Spirit,
And lowly me,
Look on my memory,
And on my forgetfulness.Search my corridors and halls.
Find all those faces and voices
Of my past, present and forgotten.
Forgive them,
As You’ve forgiven me.
Draw them,
As You have drawn me.Prepare a heavenly paradise,
In which each may dwell.
Life is short;
Memories fleeting.
You alone endure.
Embracing all,
In Your Eternity.Amen.
Copyright Joann Nelander © 2011 All rights reserved
Be Holy! 