Tears’ Requite

Awash on  shores of errant heart,
Crystalline soldiers wend their depart.

The battle o’er, the mend begun,
Hovering Spirit break forth thy sun.

You tugged as moon on ebbing tide,
To etch and burrow as to chide,

But than as swells of billowed lace,
You left a smile of radiant grace.

To purge my soul of sorrow’s trough,
You gently rain to Spirit off

The crust and brine of life’s past sin,
and let your troves of laughter in.

Providence of wind and wave
Serve but to resurrect and save.

by Joann Nelander


Tears For the Feet of Jesus

Drop, drop, slow tears, and bathe those beauteous feet,
which brought from heaven the news and Prince of Peace.

Cease not, wet eyes, his mercies to entreat;
to cry for vengeance sin doth never cease.

In your deep floods drown all my faults and fears;
nor let his eye see sin, but through my tears.

Words: Phineas Fletcher (1582-1650)

Down to Earth

It’s a bit of a jolt leaving morning mass to engage life on planet earth again.  The car radio was on; Dr. Meg Meeker, a pediatrician, and Teresa Tomeo of Catholic Connections on Immaculate Heart Radio,  brought the secular world sharply into focus.    Both ladies are terrific.   Each is taking on the the culture of death and perversion as their professions allow.  Dr. Meeker spoke of how she has encountered the effects of  even soft porn in her practice.  Looking at the aftermath of pornography through a pediatrician’s eyes can bring tears to mine.

Dr. Meeker spoke of pornography as being “straight from the pit of hell” and striking at the heart of the home.  It feeds a bent in the human person for evil, especially in someone who has a propensity for sexual evil. “It’s going to breed a whole generation of young men, and even older men, who are going to play it out and the victims are going to be younger and younger and younger children.”  She goes on to say, “Some of the most disturbing, horrific, days I have had as a pediatrician have been when I have had to confront people… deal with young children who have been sexually abused by a perpetrator.  It’s just devastating, absolutely devastating…  It does start with a perverse soft porn, a song, pictures on a page, pictures on a video  screen, and it gets worse and worse and worse.”

There definitely is a reason we been asked to “pray without ceasing.”  Add to prayer, vigilance, in our homes and over our hearts.  “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8