I would like to offer You the perfect,
But all I have is me.
So, here I am,
Sorrowful, in all my misery.In hope I approach You,
Through the gaping wound in Your Side,
Through which flowed Your Mercy,
Your Final Word.Wash me, Son of God,
In that endless river,
Your Life poured out
Throughout Time.I stand, I kneel,
Then prostrate
At Your Cross,
I wait to receive You.You are taken down,
And placed in Mary’s arms,
It is in her arms,
I find You.There with You,
I am held fast,
Giving and receiving,
The Love You have won for Me.By Joann Nelander
Tag Archives: Christian
On Eucharist
Reflection on St. Augustine’s, “I seemed to hear your voice from on high: ‘I am the food of the mature: grow, then, and you shall eat me. You will not change me into yourself like bodily food; but you will be changed into me’.”
On Eucharist
O Christ, I receive Thee
That I might become Thee.
I desire to be as You would have me,
To be, Christ, living Your Life,
In the time and place and space
That is me,
Soul and matter one,
And wed to my All Holy Three.Come, O come to me, My Christ.
My blind eyes see but bread.
Hope lights my darkness.
Faith assures me
Of what I can not now behold.You are the food,
That transforms my being
To Your Being,
Though the steps and stages
Be but measured.
You respect my frailty,
Adding strength upon strength,
That the common might be wed
To the Magnificent
Without my dissolution..Only in union can I live
“Thy Will be done,”
As You, the Son.
Grow me, grace me,
That I might become mature.
Sanctify this soul
So unlike Your own,
That free of Sin.
I be as the moon to You, O Sun.I want to become,
To be of You,
And by You completely transformed.
I pray that Your Holy Spirit
Conform me to the Will of the Father,
That I may answer
As Mother Mary, “Fiat.”.In Fire’s purifying ardor
Remove my dross.
Make me malleable.
Impress Yourself on me.
Ready me, as melted wax,
That I may receive the image,
That You conceived for me.
That with all my being,
I may spend myself totally
On the Father’s All Holy Will,
Answering with the voice of Christ
One great “Amen.”As a desert penitent
May I shed my tears for Your cause in me,
And in the world of souls,
For whom You shed Your blood.
May I complete my time on this earth
Running the race with You as my Way.Although I am all effort,
And that pleases You,
A thousand efforts
Do not make the slightest grace.
So grace me, Beloved,
That the Father will delight
To see His Only Son in me.More than a Conqueror,
You become my very being.
May I live my life in Your Life.
Come, O Eucharist,
O, Sanctifier of my soul.By Joann Nelander
Folly’s Zeal
Immodest child,
Immoderate man,
So, you think to slay dragons,
By wit and prowess,
Armed with nature’s sword.
You think it cruel
And mean-spirited,
That a “good” God
Choose to temper you,
By merciful humiliation.
He thwarts your inventions,
And plans of glory.
“All for God,” your dream,
Yet you are at the center,
With your well-chosen cross.
“Indiscreet zeal”
Immature man,
Undone by impatience,
Intemperance,
And swollen pride.
Each day God waits
Supplies the Way,
Plans a day
Filled to the brim
With humility’s simplicity.
Abandonment,
Acceptance,
Both arrow and bow,
To hit the mark
Marked out by Love.
copyright 2014 Joann Nelander
Acknowledgement:
In a chapter called, “Immature Zeal” Ralph Martin points out the effectiveness overtime of “ordinary grace” and “common life,” in his book, The Fulfillment of All Desires, a Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints.
Ralph quotes Sts. Teresa of Avila and Bernard to point out our folly in relying inordinately on ourselves to become holy and to do great things for God, both early in the spiritual life, and later on, when temptations are subtler.
Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival
It’s time once again for Sunday Snippets. We are Catholic bloggers sharing weekly our best posts with one another. Join us to read and/or contribute. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival. Make sure that the post links back to here, and leave a link to your snippets post on our host, RAnn’s, site, This, That and the Other Thing.
My Posts for the past week:
With You In Mind
Still unfolding in Time,
God built the Universe
With you in mind.
Matter abounds in precise measure,
Yet only mind cares
To count the treasure.The Nature of Reality
Weighs only upon Man.
Mind, immaterial,
Counts on Science to understand.
But mensuration once obtained
Must be thought to think things through,
But since a thought can’t be weighed or measured.
How scientifically construed?Mind, in this life,
On matter dependent,
Ideas, ethereal,
Yet vaulted resplendent.
Archiving the conceptual
Memories bound to a brain,
Quantifying the great
And trifles mundane.Man alone of all Creation
Takes the world apart
To see why the tickings
And the tocks.
Challenges, stirred
By matter-less imagination,
End when no greater thought
Can be thought in our machinations.Only then do we arrive
At the God we accuse,
Of being a non-being All-being
And betray and abuse.
Still He points to the stars
And Man more numerous,
Assuring His intention
Was never injurious.Life from the stars?
Far-flung seeds of Creation?
Enduring, maturing, while from the beginning,
The God in the dock willing our Salvation.By Joann Nelander
For Fear Apart #Christian Poetry #Catholic
Why apart?
From the in-gathering, all embracing Mother Church you flee,
To remain apart all the while,
Calling and yearning for your God.You flee and I run after you,
Pursuing you at every turn,
As I reach and you pull your hand away.
Why not stay?
My Body yearns for you.
My members long to know you.I wait upon your prayers
With angels ready to dispatch.
O, Pardoned Soul,
You seek your God in myriad ways,
I am here, wedded to My Bride,
Always at her side,
Promised never to depart.
You hold yourself apart.You’ve built a chapel in your heart
For others that play God,
I call and draw you by Love
Within the chapel of your heart.You sigh as I tug
At heart strings tight and taunt.
You resist Me for fear they’ll break.
I woo, I’m told to wait.
You say you are not ready
For Love’s music.“Measure me Your Love,” you say.
“Give comfort, strength and sure supply,
But do not on my ‘Yes’ rely.”Perhaps the Bride, the Church,
Who bears My Word forth
Unto all centuries,
Has words you n’er obey,
In dread fear of the “ought”
You can not bear.You will your will be done on earth
And choose to judge all heaven.
You want only love’s first glance,
The sweet embrace
And kiss upon the cheek,
Nothing too dear, nothing too deep.
It seems a bitter end,
To lose yourself in giving all.O Measured One.
You know Love comes with a Cross,
A Cross you fear to carry.
You choose to stay apart
And skirt the Cross.Alas, the world without has crosses, too.
They may come disguised in promised delight,
But soon you’ll drag that empty dream uphill.How long one longs
And labors longingly
And all alone
Beneath the weight
Of vanities profane,
I do not say.
I only await a cry, a plea, A glance of recognition.
When our eyes meet, then our hearts meet;
At long last your leap into the arms
Of One Who grasps you in your fall.Be mine as Church joined to Husband.
At last the Lord of All
Can leap the walls you’ve built about yourself
To know you now
Within His Sacred Heart,
Bearing your cross in His,
Making all things new
And all your burdens light.
Count now as joy life
Without measure.Fear not my Church.
She is My Spouse,
My very Body;
I, the Head.I woo and wait,
Now, as Groom upon the altar.
It is for you
To give yourself away.by Joann Nelander
Be Holy! 