New Day Dawning

O Lord,  I have no doubt
Of Faith’s fulfillment.
I no longer ask “when,”
For passing days,
But flavor and add splendor,
To my Sabbath Rest,
My dream of Love unending.
If weary of this wasteland
Spring returns with leaf and bud.
Birds’ refrain and cricket chirp
Pull back the curtain
Time and Sin descended,
To light on promise
Dawning of New Day.

Copyright  2011 Joann Nelander

Lewis’ Apologetic : Imagination and Reason

“Tolkien and Dyson showed Lewis what Christian doctrines are not actually the main thing about Christianity. Doctrines are translations into our concepts and ideas of that which God has already expressed in a language more adequate, and this language more adequate is the lived language,  the actual historical lived language of the incarnation, the crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ . That’s  the primary language of Christianity. It’s real; it’s historical, it’s visible; it’s tangible. It relates to an actual person, actually being born, actually dying, actually living again in some new ineffably transformed way.” (Michael Ward  Lewis’ Apologetics: Imagination and Reason)

Hope’s Longing

I find you in tears.
I find you in longing.
I find you covered in the news of the day,
Lying in the cold,
Under the blanket of the night,
Under heaven’s gaze.

Who wipes your tears?
Who comforts and consoles?
Who sees you in your many disguises,
Crying in the child,
Laughing with young,
Smiling down from Heaven?

Give me eyes to see through the tears.
Give me a heart to feel hope beyond sorrow.
Give me the shelter of your company.
Here in the Now,
I find You sweet within me
Promising Forever.

©2015 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

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My Cry, Your Heart, My God

Reaching for You in the Night, I marvel.
What worlds my prayer spans!
The darkness of Space and Ages
Is penetrated by Your Light,
Pierced by my cry of recognition.

My will, like Longinian sword,
Penetrates Your Heart,
Tapping perpetual Springs.
Hallowed walls of Flesh part
To welcome me, a sinner, to sweet repose.

By Joann Nelander

Here, Now and Forever

Here You are beside me.
Here You are within me.
Here You share Your Being as Bread for my living.

Here I am believing.
Here I am becoming.
Here I receive Your Spirit as Life for my soul.

Here we dwell together.
Here we dwell in loving.
Here we give, completely,
Ourselves, One to the other,one to the Other

©2015 Joann Nelander