Splendor of God

O, Magnificent One,
O, Magnanimous One,
O, Adorable One,
In the splendor of Your Godhead,
You stoop to lift me.
As Father, You gently raise me,
To plant Your kiss.
You span the distance between us.
Your overcome the flesh, the world and Evil, itself,
In the humility of the Cross.
You paid the price of my son-ship.
Knowing Yourself from eternity,
Eternally begetting the Son.
You planned to make humanity holy
By the Spirit of Jesus, Your Only Son.
O, Magnificent One,
O, Magnanimous One,
O, Adorable One,
As You breathe forth Your Spirit,
I gasp and hold fast that Sacred Breath.

To Seek Bliss

Seek grace before bliss.
To seek bliss,
Is to seek the gift
May be to shun the Giver.

Who conjures dreams matters.
My pleasure may  spring
From forbidden springs.

Before I entrust
Myself to gods,
Should I not seek
To discern “truths”
From Truth.

Come, come,
O, kind Spirit of Truth,
Though You contradict my way,
I promise to obey,
Clad in Your grace,
Day by day.

©2012  Joann Nelander
All rights reserved

In Eucharist

All that I need,
All that is good,
You bring to me in this Eucharist.

Help me to desire,
All that You want to give me.
Open my eyes,
To see myself as You see me,
And long for You all the more.

I abandon myself to You,
That You may make me holy,
And do everything for me,
By Your limitless grace.

© 2017 Joann Nelander

My Sun

With the rising of each sun,
I seek the Sun of Justice,
That coming up over hill or horizon,
He might climb the sky,
Shattering my limits, my lacks,
And poor persuasions.

O, Conqueror of Death,
And King of New Day,
Let nothing deter
Your mounting my sky.

As nothing could chain You in the Tomb,
Or dissuade Your Rising,
To pick up Life,
And surrmount High Heaven,
Here, at my beginning,
Call me forth.
With the Force of the Commingled,
And Communal Love,
That begot Thee,
For I choose Thee,
Thou, Who gave my soul substance without Matter,
Spirit without Space,
Dependant, only on Thee,
My Champion.

Love begot Thee.
Loves conceives in His Knowing,
And Love,
Takes wing,
To welcome me,
One God,
Thee, My Three,
Now regarding me.

O, Sun of Justice,
Arise, and in me , ever be.

© 2017 Joann Nelander

In Eucharist

All that I need,
All that is good,
You bring to me in this Eucharist.

Help me to desire,
All that You want to give me.
Open my eyes,
To see myself as You see me,
And long for You all the more.

I abandon myself to You,
That You may make me holy,
And do everything for me,
By Your limitless grace.

© 2017 Joann Nelander

Under the Fig Tree

untitled-175

“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