Tag Archives: Faith

Benediction

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I reach for You in the night,
On my bed, desiring.
Knowing You present in the darkness,
Watching, loving, desiring me.

As I look to You,
My desire grows,
Believing I can attain You,
You, Who are beyond me of myself,
An impossibility on my own,
Yet I invite and hope, believing.

Presuming not the power of myself,
But wholly choosing You,
My Honored Guest, my Holy Quest
I beg Your residence eternal and supreme.

Prepare me for the Day
Of Your Perfect and Perpetual Presence,
When faith and hope are fed and satisfied
At the Banquet of Abundance.

Rejoicing and hungry no more,
Possessed and possessing You,
The end of my prayer,
Forever new ,
Forever beginning ,
Forever Day,
In the Eternal Now,
Then to live Life and Love,
Forever Knowing.

© 2016 Joann Nelander

Darkly Here

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Though I perceive myself without You,
I could not reach for You, as I do,
But for You.
Therefore You are with me,
In my waiting,
In my hoping,
In my believing.

Never alone in my great wanting,
Satisfied in my enduring,
Tomorrow felt in my longing,
Smiling with every tear.
I am of high and holy cheer,
Believing You are near,
Certain You are darkly here.

©2016 Joann Nelander.

 


			

	
	



				
					

	

		
The Blood and the Blood


				

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The Blood and the Blood and the Blood!

O, Holy Blood,

Terrible and torrential,

Rain down rivers of Mercy,

To ravage the Defiler,

And assuage the anger of God.




Wash blasphemy from the tongue of Man,

And flood the souls of Men

With grace, pure, lovely, and above nature,

To inundate the depths of humanity,

And carry the Sons and Daughters of God,

High on baptismal waters

To crest in waves of praise,

And break on heavenly shores,

There to adore the Most adorable,

To love the Most Lovable,

And to glorify the Most Glorious Blood of Jesus, Savior.


© 2016 Joann Nelander



			

	
	



				
					

	

		
Keep Praying


				

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Here I am,

Your poor one,

Your lowly one,

Your empty one,

Kneeling in adoration.


You spread out Space and Time,

Knowing You would call me forth.

And then You did.


You called to me,

Forming me from the Earth,

You Who played among the Pleiades,

Stooped to play with me.


You kissed me,

With the Breath of Your Mouth,

You filled me,

Shaping me,

Empowering me,

Placing in me a formless hope.


Hope grew with the babe,

And sought with fingers of my senses.

Peeling back the covering of Mystery,

Revealing treasures hidden in the earth,

And dancing in the heavens,


Witnessed with wonder in the Night,

The Universe invited me to You,

To join You in the dance,

For which all Time and Space,

All days and all nights,

All mystery had poured forth,

With Your Cry for Light.


Your Heartbeat created the rhythms of the constellations,

The ebb and flow of cosmic seas.

Your Heart beat for Your dream of Man,

Your dream of me.


You, given as gift,

Hidden from blind eyes,

Hidden among the stars,

Spreading across Your Time,

Filling all Your Majestic Space,

Slowly whispering Your secrets,

And revealing truths,

Revealed Ultimate Truth.

You in Your Way spoke to me.


There was more than matter wrapped in my being.

Secreted without shape,

Without form,

Without stuff,

With only the power to will,

And, thereby, to Love,

To know,

And, thereby, to seek and search,

That, in living, I might come to discover You,

With me, beside me and all around me,

Waiting for me to love You.


You, Who always knew me,

And loved me,

In my ignorance,

In my blindness

And in my very being,

Even while Sin entered in to obscure Your work,

And the wonder of me,

Graced me with a soul.


I didn’t know You.

I couldn’t see You.

I didn’t know to seek after You.

Until I saw You hanging there,

Crossing the abyss,

Above the world,

Suspended and told throughout Time,


Now, at long last, I pray,

And gasp for You, my Breath.

You are the shape of me,

Saved for an eternity

Beyond gaseous matter,

And starry night,

A Day created by the One Uncreated,

And lived in the Wedding

Of Love, of soul and Spirit-being.

For this I will,

With my indomitable will,

Keep praying.


Copyright 2015 Joann Nelander

			

	
	



				
					

	

		
Hope’s Longing


				

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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

			

	
	



				
					

	

		
Being


				

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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