In these precious moments before dawn
Prepare my waking body and soul
to serve You,
As You served our heavenly Father,
In Your Incarnation.
Dawning in the Virgin’s
Womb,
Hidden Divinity,
Secret, sacred, Savior,
Announced and served by Angels,
Alive in hallowed Love,
Glorifying Man in Your Mortal Garb,
You are hidden now in me.
Manifest Your glory,
In all humility,
As, yet again,
You dawn anew,
In this heart that longs for You.
copyright 2015 Joann Nelander
Your Face
You sought solitude and prayer.
In silence, I seek You.
You sought communion with Your Father
I long to see His Face.
You, my Jesus, are that Holy Face.
I set You before the eyes of my heart.
Copyright 2015 Joann Nelander
Hide me, hold me, help me,
Living Rock of my being.
You, Truest Truth,
No mere symbol,
But Holy Being,
Are Ground of my being.
Creating with a word, the world,
You speak my name,
And, moment by moment,
Sustain my being.
Christ, my Rock,
May I forever be in Thee.
© 2015 Joann Nelander
All days have led to this day.
Yesterdays march up to the edge in Time,
But cannot enter upon my Now.
As precursors they stand,
Peering onto this Today,
Blind as bats.
Their edges approach
But halt at the Present.
Here I reign with my will.
If all my mistakes
Shout for change,
Am I now the fool
Who fails to learn?
With the sun,
I am begun.
Eternity beckons me,
Where Time cannot go,
Invites, “Come.”
He, Who sails on Eternity’s Wing,
Would be my Mender,
Not in a breaking of the Past,
But a knitting of it,
A seamless cloth,
As His very own.
The morrow begins as a Way I choose;
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Are gift to my being,
And beginning in this Now,
I am His.
©2015 Joann Nelander
Refuge of Sinners
I sit in the sunshine of Your New Day.
Forgiveness has washed over me.
At Your Word,
Mercy has rained upon Your Beloved.
Hear now, You say to me:
You are safe, My little one.
You have chosen to hide yourself
In the Wound of My Sacred Heart.
The world about is cold and unholy,
Yet you are surrounded by angels of Light.
Warm and welcoming is the Living Flesh
That is your constant refuge.
I enfold you,
As you have made My Body,
Your Food, your Heart,
Your own.
Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander
The seed is alive,
With the Future.
The seed
Buried seeking light.
The one Adam,
The store of generations,
Begetting,
But not solely of himself.
One alike in nature,
But unique to the task,
Played by his side,
The delight of Paradise.
Sin entered in.
Nature, sublime,
Met the devil in his slime.
Havoc and hell followed,
On a Fall
For the all,
Yet to be.
Generation,
Degeneration,
Retribution.
No restitution,
No remedy for institution.
Generations
Living under a curse,
Dying in time.
Eden lost,
Without return.
Until the One,
The sent
The holy.
Began His reign,
Faith born.
To invite again,
To turn again
From the mire!
Unto hope.
Confronting the curse
Hanging from the cross,
Accursed,
Becoming Sin,
Sin meeting its end
In Him.
Meeting His end
Defeating the end
To be the beginning,
First born of the Dead.
To be for us
To be forever New,
New life
New hope.
Finding Adam in his grave
Dry bones moved by the Spirit.
Rise with him.
A new beginning
Rising from death
To call all to life.
The life of Adam,
Born through the ages,
Played out in generations.
Out of one, many.
He, Christ,
Descending
Gathering ,
Mending,
All ascending ,
Captive to the Light.
The seed
Become
His Life,
The future without end,
Living life without end.
© 2016 Joann Nelander
Be Holy! 