Lent is about Love,
Recognizing our lack and need.
Lent is about Spring,
Becoming fertile ground for Christ’s seed.
Lent is about Life,
Allowing the sprout to be freed.
Lent is about creation,
Imaging Christ in love and deed.
©2013 Joann Nelander
Enjoy the springtime of life
And live in wonder.
Enjoy in awe the Love
God lavishes upon the lowly.
Enjoy the ever fresh image of Christ
Imprinted in our souls.
It is Lent
Enjoy your food,
Receive it from the hand of God.
Abhor sin and cease to feed on fodder,
That you might have fullness
And your choice portion
At Heaven’s banquet.
©2013 Joann Nelander
All that matters,
To be like Christ,
What else is there?
Want what the Father wants,
Love, love, love!
Suffer with Jesus,
As He suffers,
Lack of love
In the world,
In people,
In Christians.
The world belongs to God,
Creator of Beauty, Holiness, Truth,
All that is.
Creation confesses Jesus,
Gives witness to God.
Live like him.
Talk like Him.
Let Him impress on you
His image as on Veronica’s veil,
Offered in compassion.
Impressed with the face of Jesus,
Go forward
In newness of life,
A new creation.
False images,
Reject them!
Imitate Jesus Christ.
Have Him before your eyes
All the day long.
Have Him on your tongue
All the day long.
Live with Him
Through the night,
Through the dark,
Into the smiling Light.
All is grace.
What else is there?
© 2014 Joann Nelander
Who will come to the stable
On Christmas Day?
And what will they take away?
Wise men, steadfast and earnest, came,
Instead of palace music,
They heard the donkey brae.
A lowly sound and sight,
Yet their wonder unallayed.
Many come rejoicing,
To behold the Newborn King,
Bowing low,
While angels sing.
Christ comes for all
But not all come.
Some come, behold, then fall away,
Being rootless, they merrily go their way.
Father God prepared a voice
To announce His Only Word,
A messenger, born before, to go before.
Another child, spared Ramah’s plight
To live and pierce Sin’s long night
John, O, John, still cries, “Repent!”
Prepare if you would follow.
At Jerusalem’s Gate,
Many cried, “Messiah,”
Who would soon cry, “Crucify.”
Whose will will you do,
When the music fades in life?
Pride prides itself on ‘my way,’
Confounds with will and strife.
Without a ready, willing heart,
Nothing changes Christmas Day.
Corrupt hearts go on corrupting,
All the while the kingly Infant cries,
As throughout His life,
“I am the Way.”
Whose heart will live in yours
As angelic songs fade away.
Will you simply leave the stable
To follow your own way?
Come, O come, rejoicing!
Praying for a change.
Receive the Babe within your Heart.
Beg Him forever stay.
©2010 Joann Nelander
In the midst of joy,
I bear many sorrows.
For the perfection
Of the Trinity’s All Holy
Work of Love,
I place my longing,
My yearning,
Next to your perfect sorrow.
May my cries
Pierce your Immaculate Heart,
O Holy Mother,
As you behold your Son,
In His Dying.
What good can come of sorrow?
You, Queen Mother,
Who sit enthroned
Beside His throne,
Sharing the sweetness
Of Love’s fulfillment,
Know,
And count it all joy.
The One Son,
The One Christ,
Bears Mankind,
As He bore the Cross.
Savor the shed tears
And offer them,
As you did your own.
I await the morning,
The bright dawning
Of Love’s true laughter.
©2013 Joann Nelander
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I left You long ago,
To wander in a world of choices,
Bombarded by alluring voices.
I left at home
All cords that bound,
Proudly casting off all staked to holy ground.
I soared mounting the wind,
On Icharus’ wings waxed proud,
‘Til sun and heat spoke Truth aloud.
I left You long ago.
Now in swift descent I fall,
Humbled, hoping to be caught by Lord of All.
Be Holy! 