You, by Your Presence, O Lord,
Are Light to my darkness.
You are the kiss upon my brow,
The oil upon my head,
The arms of sweet embrace,
The banner over my heart.
You, All Love,
Bless this child of Your magnificent
And magnanimous Mercy.
Day by day.
I find You all about me.
Flowers and fields,
Spread before me
As a welcoming blanket.
Come rest awhile, You invite.
I come and I delight.
©2011 Joann Nelander
I offer You the straw of my life,
O Lord of my redemption.
Send Your angels, day by day,
To glean my field,
To fuel the fire of Your Love.
Did You not say,
“Learn from Me,
For I am meek,
And humble of heart?”
You do not need my riches.
You seek my poverty, my emptiness.
Your Fire penetrates my stubble.
I become like You,
All aglow As light and heat
Testify to Your Presence in the flame
That shoots to the heavens.
I am surrender and trust
In welcome transformation.
I am lost and yet eternal.
In You, straw by straw,
As kindling,
I am become the Flame.
I bathe my whole life
In the Blood of Christ.
In Spirit, I place my Soul,
Envisioned as a newborn,
In the water that flowed
From the Side of Jesus,
At the piercing
Of His most Sacred Heart.
O Holy Bath, flow over me.
Flow within me,
Permeating even
To the marrow of my bones.
Embrace my thoughts.
As a river in flood,
Envelope all in Your path.
Possess all.
Carry the delinquent and wayward,
As a torrent,
To the ever peaceful Mind of Christ,
Redeeming and reconciling opposites.
May the Christ,
As priestly chrism,
Penetrate the mundane of me,
And divinate my being.
Heal forever my disparity,
Remove all trace
Of Sin’s dominion and damage.
O Holy Love, at Your insistence,
I trust in You.
Coming forth from this bath,
Dry me, Your child,
As tears upon Your cheek
to honor all the tears
You shed for want of me.
Be solace to my regret .
Be comfort in my sorrow.
Wrap me, in my infancy,
In the heart of the Mother,
That Immaculate Heart
That longed with You
For my birth anew,
And enflesh me as a child.
By water and the Spirit
As Your child.
Sweet Peace, O Holy Peace,
You are All in All.
I, a child of God, will thank You
For all Eternity
In Triune embrace,
A happy word, whispered in Spirit,
From the Son to the Father.
© 2013 Joann Nelander
The Exorcism prayer dictated by the Blessed Virgin Mary: August Queen
In the 1846, (Church approved) apparition of La Salette, experienced by two young children who were strangers to each other, the Blessed Virgin Mary tearfully told the children that:
“In the year 1864 Lucifer, together with a great number of demons, will be loosed from Hell; they will put an end to faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God… All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds…. Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist [not necessarily the independent Vatican State within Rome – but who knows?]. The demons of the air [the media?] with the Antichrist will perform great wonders on earth and in the atmosphere, and men will become more perverted….Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ [i.e. all Christians] who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world. It is time they came out and filled the world with light…Fight children of light, you, the few who can see. For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends….The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay…Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives are crucifying my Son again! ….The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence… And then water and fire will purge the earth and consume all the works of men’s pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified.”
On 13 January 1864, Father Louis Cestac (founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Mary, who died in 1868), accustomed to the goodness of the Most Blessed Virgin, was suddenly struck by a ray of divine light.
He saw a vision of demons swarming over the earth wreaking havoc. At the same time, the Holy Virgin appeared, saying that demons had indeed broken loose into the world and the time had come to implore her as Queen of Angels and to ask her to send legions of angels to fight and overthrow the powers of hell which had now been unchained.
Father Cestac addressed the Virgin with the following words:
O my Mother you who are so good, could you not send your angels without us having to ask you?“No” the Virgin replied, “prayer is a condition established by God himself to obtain graces.” “Then, Mother”, said the priest, “would you teach us how we should pray to you?” And the Holy Virgin dictated this prayer ‘August Queen’ to him:
August Queen of Heaven and Mistress of the Angels,
You who have received from God the power and the mission to crush the head of Satan;
We humbly ask you to send the heavenly legions,
So that under your command they may:
- pursue the demons,
- combat them everywhere,
- crush their bold attacks, and
- drive them back into the Abyss.
“Who is like God?”
O good and tender Mother, you will always be our love and our hope.
O heavenly Mother, send the holy Angels to defend me and repel far from me the cruel enemy.
Holy Angels and Archangels defend us and guard us. Amen.
I woke up with God today.
He was with me,
And I smiled.
I am smiling still,
For in His Presence,
I seem to glow,
On the inside, of course.
I hug Christ to me, all gratitude.
Being flighty like a bird,
Anxious to take to wing,
Precisely, because my spirit soars,
I count the grace of moment, a treasure,
and tuck it ‘neath my pinions.
Once aloft on wings of love,
I may be distracted,
Attracted by His good creation,
Or attacked by jealous gods,
Envying His majesty,
And hating His Intimacy
With so lowly a creature.
My God, thank You,
For this favor in Time,
That I may be refreshed,
And readied for Eternity,
Where I shall never
Lose sight of You.
Steel me, O Immanuel.
Sharpen my vision,
To see You with me always,
In Your hidden Presence
Within my soul.
© 2011 Joann Nelander All rights reserved
Be Holy! 