Purgatory

 

My many sins

Have gone up in flames,

And all that is left,

You deem holy.

 

©2012 Joann Nelander

 

 

“Fiat”

“Fiat.”
To Mary’s “Fiat,”
I say, “Amen. Amen. Amen. ”

“Fiat”, my gift to You, my King.
I give You, here in my heart, Mary’s “Fiat”,
That so inflamed the heart of Your Father,
That He gave her His Kingdom,
Enfleshing You, His Son.
The instant Mary formed her ascent in her heart and mind,
And her lips forms the word “Fiat”,
You, my God,  began Your Human life in the womb of the Virgin.

O Mary, more than a chalice,
For of your seed sprang God,
Fully human, Fully Divine ,
Of you,
Eucharist was conceived
In Immaculate Splendor.
Thanksgiving began in the heaven of your Soul
And took flesh from the heaven of Your being.
Amen. Amen. Amen.

Father, my gift to You
This morning,
Mary’s “Fiat”
May it ring out
From this lowly Earth
That heaven come down
And live among Men.
Rain down Truth and Beauty, born of a Virgin,
His Body,
Forever bearing her donation.
Mystery, Divine,
Remember Your Love, throughout Time.

©2011 Joann Nelander

All rights reserved

The Robe

Lord of the centuries,
Knit, of our pain, the knots,
That mysteriously arrange themselves
Across our days.

Guide, by unseen fingers,
Each little pearl,
To form a cloth
Alive with Your Golden threads,
Infinitely more than happenstance or tragedy.

Each strand of Time a mystery,
Bathed in trial and tears,
Yet rich in Awe,
Resplendent in Beauty,
And the gracious beneficence
Of sacrificial love.

Whole cloth,
Woven into a seamless robe,
You don in majesty,
Humble and meek in triumph o’er our graves,
As Life welcomes to the Banquet,
Our souls, now clad in bodies,
One with Your Own.

© 2015 Joann Nelander

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

Entombment

Mortal life of substance,
And ethereal,
As the matter of soul,
You are far spent,
In this night of human life,
That passes in a blink
Of the eye of God.

I have pulled you,
Limb from limb,
Not as the Savior’s travail
Upon the Cross,
But by sinning,
Brought death to my members.

I am dislocated,
In body and Time,
Knowing neither peace,
Nor the plenty
Of sweet communion,

The passages of Death
And the Lies,
Rising from the Pit,
And told to Man,
Threaten the life
Of God in me,

You, O mind and body,
Have been taken prisoner,
By the gods
I chose to serve.

Mercy speaks
Light to my darkness
And Grace
To my repentant will,
Love never ceases
Watching and waiting.

Mercy, I call to You,
You, Who call me forth,
And deliver me.
I turn my thoughts and pray
To the Fount of my being.

As a babe,
I return,
And from New Womb,
By faith believing,
I choose rebirth,
And am reborn.

My grave is a baptism
That reconnects my spirit
To my God..
Breath, bones and sinews
Sing a new song
Born of my Savior’s Grave.

Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

Joann Nelander
lionessblog.com

Accountable

O Man,awake!
On Earth, you are held accountable,
Are you not?

You sing for your supper.
You dance to life’s tune.
Only the air is free.
All else is taxed.
The first fruit is owed another.

You fear to run from the law.
You are held to a measure.!
If it be such for a man of earth,
Mortal, yet accountable,
Where will a soul, immortal,
Flee upon a coming demise?

Without the stuff of Earth,
Naked and stripped of pomp and circumstance,
Revealed as soul and spirit,
Answering not to man,
But to God,
Are we not all the more accountable?

Copyright 2015 Joann Nelander