Tag Archives: Jesus

Reflecting on a Newborn

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AquilaYSol/Photobucket

 

Joy was my initial response
to a day of silence,
more exactly, a day of listening.

The sense I had was of God’s delight.
He was looking on me as we do a newborn,
full of love and enchantment.
He wanted me to share this delight.
He wanted me to recognize that it was me
who delighted Him.

I had an image in my mind of angels and saints,
those present at the Mass,
passing by and looking on me
as they would a precious newborn.
(I had just consumed the Eucharist.)
Each holy spirit approached,
giving me a blessing I would grow into,
or seen another way,
by which I would grow.

The Father wanted me to know
how much it delighted Him
to see me rise after a fall.
I am a sinner but I will be a saint,
if I allow His love to form me,
and continue to rise after each fall.
It would be nice if my falls were infrequent,
but if they be a thousand,
He would grace me a thousand times,
each time I washed my robe clean
in the blood of Christ,
confessing my sins and beginning anew,
a newborn.

By Joann Nelander

This Is For Me

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The Crucifixion of Christ by Simon Vouet

Image via Wikipedia

They choose nails to fix You to the Tree of Life, the witness of Your Death.

It was Love that drew You to that Hour, that thrice holy Hour,

Love, not nails, that held You fast, upon the beam.

Your Father’s Will was the cord that bound and secured You,
Heart and Soul, Your Undivided All.

You choose this consummation, devoid of earthly pleasure,
Your Passion, the counter and all consuming Fire, that ravages Sin,
The Sin of our earthly passions,
That spends our lives in unholy rebellion.

When all others fled for want of Godly self-possession,
You mounted Your Cross in peace and resignation.

This throne of suffering and sovereignty held dominion
Over the underworld and all it’s gods.

Your edict, a request: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

It is Love that draws You to this Hour, this thrice holy Hour,

Love, not nails, that weds me, in freedom and abandonment, to Your All Holy Heart.

By Joann Nelander

Lord Take Delight

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Christ and Mary Magdalene by Peter Paul Rubens

Take delight in me, dear Lord.
How can one so foul give You pleasure?
I can not please You as I am in my aloneness.
Unite me then to Your Mercy.

Employ Your Justice in the measure of my want,
For I am of the dust,
And have been given no goodness apart from You.
Deem to come to my aid.

In anticipation of Your visitation
Send Your advance guard,
Saints and angels to clothe me
For the presence of a King.

Strip me of my unloveliness.
Set me free from dalliance and despair.
You Who are fire
Purify by Love and True Life.

Laugh at the enemy at my gate,
Disarm the Foe by the wonder of Your Holiness.
See me here in my blood guilt,
And do not despise my wretchedness,
But embrace me as the child of holy consummation

Born of Your Passion.
Delight in me, O Ancient of Days,
Creative Word , seal my fate,
Speak that I might stand forth,
The image of Your Being.

Laugh and delight at the work of Your hands.
As a newborn gives joy to mother and father,
Take pleasure in Your pains on my behalf,
The labor of Your Love.

By Joann Nelander

Chilean Miners’ T-Shirt Thanksgiving

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What did the t-shirts of the rescued Chilean miners say?  Most of the miners chose to wear them over their jumpsuits:

Cry of the Heart

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My Prayer

Lord, do others speak to you in whole sentences.

My prayer is like me in my raw and bewildered state,

mind and feelings at war within me,

straining to understand, to comprehend myself,

and wondering what You desire,

still in a quandary to know what to pray;

indeed, how to prayer.

All I know is that You, O Lord, are.

Though I seem alone, You are with me,

Your Holy Name, my byword.

My prayer is Your Name,

Now echoing in the Father’s ear.

I do not call it back.

It shall resound through eternity,

and on its strains I hold fast.

I wait and I adore.

Let me rest here,

safe in Your embrace.

By Joann Nelander

Expanding Our Desire In Prayer

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Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglica...

Image via Wikipedia

St. Augustine’s Instruction:

Let us exercise our desire in prayer

Why in our fear of not praying as we should, do we turn to so many things, to find what we should pray for? Why do we not say instead, in the words of the psalm: I have asked one thing from the Lord, this is what I will seek: to dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to see the graciousness of the Lord, and to visit his temple? There, the days do not come and go in succession, and the beginning of one day does not mean the end of another; all days are one, simultaneously and without end, and the life lived out in these days has itself no end.
So that we might obtain this life of happiness, he who is true life itself taught us to pray, not in many words as though speaking longer could gain us a hearing. After all, we pray to one who, as the Lord himself tells us, knows what we need before we ask for it. Continue reading →