Tag Archives: Religion and Spirituality

Loving You

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I am with you,

As One Who has always loved you,

Loving you as you began your life’s journey

To the kingdom of Heaven,

Your true home,

Loving you all the days I have appointed you.

Loving you unto dying and your death,

Loving you as the breath of life.

I have played upon the strings of your heart,

So that you would hear My music,

Even midst dissimilitude and dissonance.

Let not the unbelieving of the world,

Let not discordance and strife of flesh,

Let not the deceiver of Men,

Draw a curtain before your eyes.

Fix the gaze of your soul upon Me,

Here in your heart,

I reign, holy and at rest,

Upon the throne

At the center of your being.

Do Me homage

As you arise at the break of day.

Bow before Me

With the rising of each sun.

Dance with Me,

Following My lead.

Cry with Me in the sorrowing.

Plead for sinners in their fall.

Lend the hand of prayer

To uphold the weak and weary.

You journey as one

In the One Who is All Love.

Peace, My child.

Peace and refreshment,

Here at my altar.

I polish and perfect you,

That you may be

A monstrance of humility,

Fading from prominence,

As I send out my splendor

As grace and blessing.

All is gift to the one

Who receives with the seasons,

Yielding to the winds that blow upon the soul,

Welcoming the water of spring rains,

And the summer torrents,

Allowing blankets of snow

To still you in repose,

Awaiting new life, My Life.

© 2015 Joann Nelander

The Robe

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Lord of the centuries,
Knit, of our pain, the knots,
That mysteriously arrange themselves
Across our days.

Guide, by unseen fingers,
Each little pearl,
To form a cloth
Alive with Your Golden threads,
Infinitely more than happenstance or tragedy.

Each strand of Time a mystery,
Bathed in trial and tears,
Yet rich in Awe,
Resplendent in Beauty,
And the gracious beneficence
Of sacrificial love.

Whole cloth,
Woven into a seamless robe,
You don in majesty,
Humble and meek in triumph o’er our graves,
As Life welcomes to the Banquet,
Our souls, now clad in bodies,
One with Your Own.

© 2015 Joann Nelander

OCEAN OF GRACE

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By the gracious gift of God.
You, the Invited,
Receive His Peace.
Heartbeat by heartbeat,
Breath by breath,
In each instant,
His Will comes to you,
The Chosen,
To freely choose.

Remain His by faith.
Living in His favor,
A rain of blessing falls,
To water your being,
And penetrate the ground
On which, and in which,
You stand.

You give consent,
And desire in Love,
And as a plentiful valley,
Moment by moment.
Rooted in the holy,
Sanctified by the Sanctifier,
Life and abundance of fruit,
Are multiplied in you,
And grown up around you,

Grace upon grace,
Help, healing and holiness,
Flow in abundance.
From the springing up,
To the watering flow,
Then to rush,
As to the waiting arms a beloved,
Presuming bath and baptism,
To the ingathering of rivers,
In consecration and convergence,
Love returns to the Ocean
Of its Source.

As a homecoming,
Meandering streams
Cut courses through Time.
The many become seas
To, at long last, mingle
In the Mighty Mind,
And Minder of our souls.

copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

lionessblog.com

Garden of The Lord

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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

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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

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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.