Lord, as I begin this day,
Have it Your way.
I seek not me, but Thee.
When bitter valley threaten,
And I count the cost,
I choose not me, but Thee.
In the dark night.
Trace Your path upon my heart,
That demons, seeking to terrorize and tempt,
Meet not me, but Thee.
When gift and labor
Bring merit and reward,
All glory to, not me, but Thee.
O Lord,
May those I meet upon Your Way,
See, not me, but Thee.
© 2014 Joann Nelander
You are before me,
Drawing me ever closer.
I am lost in loving,
Beseeching and begetting
By Your grace.
You call me
“The apple of Your eye”.
Look, then, upon my world.
Perfect it,
Through this, my prayer.
Color the ghettos of sin
With hues of charity.
Bring a springtime of purity,
That earth may be as heaven,
Peopled with Children of God.
My loaves and fishes
Can feed the poor and hungry.
Though they be few, You are mighty.
Grace, Grace, O Holy Grace,
Behold me,
As I feast on Thee.
copyright 2014 Joann Nelander
or
or for the ambitious, try it in glass!
At the heart of all temptations … is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives. Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building on our own foundation; refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside as an illusion – that is the temptation that threatens us in many varied forms.
Moral posturing is part and parcel of temptation. It does not invite us directly to do evil – no, that would be far too blatant. It pretends to show us a better way, where we finally abandon our illusions and throw ourselves into the work of actually making the world a better place. It claims, moreover, to speak for true realism: What’s real is what is right there in front of us – power and bread. By comparison, the things of God fade into unreality, into a secondary world that no one really needs.
God is the issue: Is he real, reality itself, or isn’t he? Is he good, or do we have to invent the good ourselves? The God question is the fundamental question, and it sets us down right at the crossroads of human existence.
* This excerpt is from “Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration” by Pope Benedict XVI
Write my love upon my heart
That I might sign it with my life’s blood,
Coursing through its chambers,
Rushing to serve and sing to You.
With every beat,
With every pulsation,
Carry my persuasions to the ends of my being,
Returning as tides to touch anew Your Heart,
United in Spirit,
Kissing each movement and moment,
As I spread myself upon Your hidden shores,
To embrace and race,
In hurried pulse to do You Will
As my own,
Reaching for eternity.
With a kiss upon the brow
Crown all my moments
With the fiat I proffer
In Your ever Present Now.
Heart of Love,
Be in me.
Sighed and signed,
Joann
Dear Reader,
Make my prayer your prayer,
By placing it beside mine,
And together,
We shall love Him best.
Copyright 2016 Joann Nelander
I know so little of myself.
I perceive myself to be
Only because
You think of me.
I spin about like elemental sprites,
Really nothing without You,
Yet dancing as the orbs
Upon the stage
Of Time and Space.
I know so little of my heart,
How it can beat and bow,
And even break.
That I am free to move,
In opposition to Your dreams for me.
You are the spirit and stuff
Of my many moments,
The thought I hold dear,
And the music I hear.
I know so little of myself,
But You speak me and here I be,
Living and dreaming,
Praying and waiting,
To see all You have thought of me.
Copyright 2016 Joann Nelander
Be Holy! 