People of Praise

Your people praise you, O Lord.
As points of light,
Scattered about
The surface of the Earth.
Together with angelic choirs,
That dot the firmament,
Your children sing.

With fish, and bird,
With rivers and seas,
With mountains,
And heavenly heights,
Creation sings in chorus,
Affirmation,
Acclamation,
And affection,
In sanctifying hosannas,
That fall as bountiful rain,
To water man and beast
With fruitful exaltation,
Multipling our delight,
As we magnify our God.

We are your mothers,
Fathers, sisters,
Brothers, friends
Of Your fold,
Returning praise,
And worship due
The Most High Lord
Of all creation.
In Your Light we
Become Your Light.

© 2012 Joann Nelander

Listening and Silent

It seems…
I am always talking to You,
That I am always with You,
And have no doubt
You are with me,
Listening and silent.

I am an endless monologue.
You, hovering Spirit,
Wordlessly eloquent
Abide.
You are Presence and Truth,
Listening and silent,
Thunderously silent,
Save for the stirring of my heart,
And the sometime rush of thought,
Coming, as it were,
From the bowels of my being
With frightening conviction,
And challenging my reticence
To speak aloud
The thoughts of solitude.

Reluctant always
To go about,
And leave the cloister of my heart,
Where in Your chambers I find,
And hold dear,
Private audience with the King,

The world without is a noisy charade,
And woos the pride of me take center stage.
Where suddenly I realize
I have been talking much, too much,
To my regret.

I, naggingly, suspect
I have diminished
What was my treasure
And ceased to learn.
Cacophany of me,
I cease to learn,
And simply rearrange,
That with which I am familiar.

Where do prophet, poet and a would be recluse
Find voice if not in You,
Rejecting even audience
To find You in my silence,
Your silence?

©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved

A Willing Heart

The least of Your children, O Lord,,
Can bring forth fruit one hundred fold.
Such is the mystery of grace and love
Planted in a willing heart.

By Joann Nelander

Mysticism In The Catholic Tradition

Father Spitzer’s Universe – 2017-05-17 – Mysticism In The Catholic Tradition

 

How Blessed

How Blessed

How blessed am I?
How happy?
Knowing Your love,
Sets me at Your feet,
Where I place the sins of my life.

How blessed am I?
How happy?
Knowing Your forgiveness
Raises me to Your Most Sacred Breast,
Where the Fire of Your Great Love
Blazes up to consume me.

Here I choose to remain,
Through the hours of this day.
Watch me,
That I may watch.
Pray, comfort me,
That I may thereby
Live to console
Your Holy Heart.

© 2017 Joann Nelander

Infinite Thanksgiving

My Gracious Lord,
How beautiful the graces
That flow, unceasingly,
In torrents, from Your Sacred Heart.

Though I am all gratitude,
I am so small and unworthy.
I make small return,
For Your magnificent beneficence

Broaden my capacity to love,
And, thereby, to render infinite thanksgiving,
Putting on Christ,
As the incense of gratitude,
Ever, an offering
Pleasing to You.

© 2017 Joann Nelander