Garden of The Lord

11x14A-250 Rainbow FallsSweet Mother, come to me.
Visit my ground.
See my wild, unruly state.
Take pity,
Take time,
Take me.

In your holy vision,
Contemplate the Face of your Son,
Recreate His countenance in Me.
Clear me.
Clean me.
Cultivate me.

Come again and again and again,
Work the miracle of grace upon grace.
With hand,
With hoe ,
Sun and rain.

Make me a garden.
Prepare it by your prayer and presence.
For His good pleasure.
Plant seeds.
Envision beauty.
Raise roses.

Then on this plain of your true humility,
Raise me for His pure delight,
Here to welcome heaven,
To sing,
To play,
To dance.

Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander
lionessblog.com

IF AND WHEN

My dearest Heart,
If I but had pure vision
Of Your Holiness,
My soul would take wing,
To break the hold
And travesty accursed,
Which chains me here,
Forever, casting off,
The gravity of Sin.

Hold, before my eyes,
The Christ upon the Cross,
That Longinus beheld,
That I, too, might soar to Your Side,
And enter there that Wound,
Which You love best,
That holy invitation,
That bids me "enter here".

No accident of fate,
That sword that pierced Your Heart
But providential lance of Holy Love,
That freed, fortuitous,
The wellspring of Salvation.

The sight of Love dying,
And undying,
Crosses the divide of Heaven and Hell,
To bathe with healing,
My eyes, as Raphael did Tobit.
And causes me to say with blind Bartimaeus,
In compassionate encounter,
"Lord, that I might see."

Love bathes me, as Mother,
At the first sign of my distress,
Before my disbelief of Mercy
Could raise objection
To Your eternal Kindness.

In the sunrise of the First Morn
Of New Day,
I see You, my sweetest Heart,
Resplendent, yet still pierced.

O, my Resurrected Lord,
Promise of my victory,
I adore with Seraphic praise,
And taking wing,
I rise with Thee.

A Blessing for New Life

All Holy, Almighty, Jesus, Purest Heart,
Look upon the sweet beings, God’s good creations,
Nestled in the sanctity of human wombs.
Encircle the world through these little ones,
With Triune Love.

Bless Mother Eve with the "Fiat" grace of Mother Mary,
To bring forth a generation wed to Your Holy Will,
Peacemakers, pious through obedience,
Loving by Your Spirit,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

May these, as Children of the Light, recognize You,
From their coming forth into a new day,
Giving witness, and preparing Your Way,
As John (blessed in his mother’s womb).

Give dominion to these,
As You did the First Adam,
To reclaim and grace Your Good Earth.

God Bless America

Familiar face sing for a blessing.

Prayer for Our Day

Lord of Power and Might,
Harness the Four Winds
To serve Your Plan,
And bless Your inheritance.

Prostrate before You,
The Church raises a mighty cry,
To pierce the heavens,
And touch Your Merciful Heart.

Though our sins poison the many waters,
And our idolatry empower the Enemy,
May the sack clothe and ashes of our repentance,
Be sweet incense.

May our prayer and penance,
Be a shield emblazoned
With Your Name,
O Mercy Divine.

Reign down upon the Fiend,
The punishment our crimes deserve,
Chain Hell’s fury,
As in humility and meekness,
We render You Praise.

Salvation is Your Name,
O, Jesus.
Glad hosannas encircle Your Throne,
And the Glory of God
Shows forth in Love.

Holy, Holy, Holy,
The Seraphim cry in adoration,
As Powers, Thrones and Dominions,
Principalities and Virtues,
Pour down the Blood of Christ,
On Adam’s sin and seed,
To banish the Long Night.

Our God reigns,
His Cross lights up the sky.
Witnesses of Past and Present shout for joy.
Cherubim return to Your Jerusalem of Gold,
Spreading their wings above your Mercy Seat .

Your Temple is Presence,
Welcoming “Men of Good Will”,
As Angels and Archangels
Secure the Children of God.
Amen.

©2014 Joann Nelander

A Drop in the Ocean

A drop in the ocean of the Lord,
Minuscule,
Tear-sized,
Hardly felt upon the cheek,
Brushed away
To fall into the river of Your love.

Once alone,
Barely a something,
Really “a nothing”,
A lonely singularity,
But felt upon a Heart.

The tears of others,
Conjoined,
Confusion,
Profusion,
Holy joy in headlong rush,
Whisked over rock and rubble,
Carried by unseen arms,
Pressed on
By force of a Holy Will.

Cascades’ roar arousing fear,
Bewilderment,
Mingled vigor,
Hope rises to the surface
And churns the deep.

Fate creates a splash
And a rivulet of escape,
An instant of choice,
Puddle or precipice?

I hang upon a prayer,
Borne aloft in new fall,
Truly free fall,
Onto the rushing stream,
And weeping humanity prevails.

One drop,
Now millions,
Energy,
Direction,
Momentum,
Kinetic kaleidoscope,
Mirroring Divine power.

The tide of many waters,
Convergence,
At the edge,
And then the fall,
Not like the first,
In free abandonment.

One drop,
Transformed by divine law,
Holy Obedience.
Tumultuous streams
Carve the land without,
And all within.

Fertile flood of holy tears,
Serve now His Plan,
A drop in the ocean of God.

Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

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Joann Nelander
lionessblog.com