Tag Archives: Religion and Spirituality

Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival

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It’s time once again for Sunday Snippets. We are Catholic bloggers sharing weekly our best posts with one another.  Join us to read and/or contribute. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival. Make sure that the post links back to here, and leave a link to your  snippets post on our host, RAnn’s, site, This, That and the Other Thing.

 

My Posts for the week:

Water at the Well

Gathering Flowers

 

 

The Apple of Your Eye

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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

Pope Francis visits the Holy Land – Water of Peace- a Poem Prayer

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As Pope Francis visits the Holy Land, I offer a prayer as we accompany him in spirit:

Water of Peace

Jesus, enter the waters of our lives.
As at the Jordan,
You made holy
The water of Baptism,
Renew, in all men of good will,
Life, that flows from the God of Heaven,
Your Father, our Father, my Father.

May Your Holiness
Infuse the elements,
That compose all created things.
By the Water,
Cascading from the Temple,
Your pierced, open, and hallowed Side,
Prepare here a place for all men to abide.
Amen

Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

Joann Nelander
lionessblog.com

Brother, Redeemer

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Kin of my heart, I come to You, the Altar.
At Your feet
I lay myself down.

Redeemer Brother, cover me
With your mantle.
Claim me as Your own.

Protect me through the night,
Wake me at dawn with a sweet caress.
Let my name be as a kiss  upon Your lips.

Closer than breath,
Stronger than death,
Our hearts, now and forever, One.

copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

Awake in the Night

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Keeping watch with Christ seems to be my lot in these early hours of the morning. I always rejoice despite my sleepiness when I hear these words of Night Prayer:

Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.
Lord, give our bodies restful sleep
and let the work we have done today
bear fruit in eternal life.

The blessing puts all things in perspective:

May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.
– Amen.

What Else is There?

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All that matters,
To be like Christ,
What else is there?
 
Want what the Father wants,
Love, love, love!
Suffer with Jesus,
As He suffers,
Lack of love
In the world,
In people,
In Christians.
 
The world belongs to God,
Creator of Beauty, Holiness, Truth,
All that is.
Creation confesses Jesus,
Gives witness to God.
 
Live like him.
Talk like Him.
Let Him impress on you
His image as on Veronica’s veil,
Offered in compassion.
 
Impressed with the face of Jesus,
Go forward
In newness of life,
A new creation.
 
False images,
Reject them!
Imitate Jesus Christ.
Have Him before your eyes
All the day long.
Have Him on your tongue
All the day long.
 
Live with Him
Through the night,
Through the dark,
Into the smiling Light.
All is grace.
What else is there?
 

© 2014 Joann Nelander