I live because You died,
Not in guilt,
But in the freedom of Love.
Choices are arrayed before me,
Multiplied by the days of my Life.
With the breaking
Of each New Day,
I rise forever
To choose You,
With the breaking
Of the Bread,
With the Lifting Up,
With the Cross before my eyes
I am a witness
Of the Resurrected One.
You Christ upon the altar,
You, Christ, living anew
In me,
Walk the Earth again
Leaving now my footsteps.
©2012 Joann Nelander
Jesus, high, lifted up, I adore You.
Jesus, high, lifted up, I praise You.
Jesus, high, lifted up, I love You.
Jesus, high, lifted up, I choose You,
As from the beginning, Jesus,
You chose me to be.Copyright 2013 Joann Nelander
Who really died?
I never saw
The light of day.
Black descended,
Of a kind
I knew not,
And then no more….
How did I know you?
All I knew was you.
You flavored my becoming,
Your genes, my genes,
Your feelings,
Emotional rhythms,
Touching me
By blood connection.
All this,
And then no more…..
How did I feel you?
Warmth, gentle rocking
To and fro.
I felt you,
Heart-sounds
Surrounding me,
Pressing me,
Impressing me.
You whooshed at times
And hummed.
And then no more…..
How did I leave you?
I knew anguish
As once I knew you,
Your blood feeding mine,
I knew as parting,
Leaving behind mother
As gift withdrawn,
And bid goodbye.
Too young for endings,
Too soon to die,
And then no more…..
How now and by and by?
Sorrow and black
And then the Light.
New Day, as womb,
Enfolding me.
Life ending
Beginning yet again.
And I behold
The Face of God.
I live,
Knowing Love,
Yet still,
I wait for you.
Eternity has a door,
God knocks from His side,
I listen for you.
Pray but open the latch.
That you might die no more,
And free from sin,
Enter in.
There is yet more.
Who really died that day?
Take my hand , my Jesus.
Here I am, Your child,
Too small to stand on my own,
Yet welcome before Your throne.
It is, You, My Cause,
Who sets me upright,
Through and through,
To be like unto You.
All my life called,
And marked by Love Divine,
Under Your Shadow, sun shining above,
One command only, Love!
Who can love without You?
This, too, You supply.
You spend Your Life’s Blood
To draw me from mire and mud.
All from Adam
In human chain,
Hold hands to be set free,
Man from Sin in loving Thee.
Copyright 2013 Joann Nelander
Feast – Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary
“Today we celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Romanus, a sixth-century lyricist in the Eastern tradition, first refers to the feast. The tradition spread and was celebrated in Rome within a century. The Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal gospel from the 2nd century, tells us the account of Our Lady’s birth. Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anna, longed for a child. Anna prayed to the Lord and in response, God sent an angel telling her she’d conceive. When Mary was born, the couple rejoiced, vowing to make their daughter a gift unto the Lord. Her birth becomes, as John Paul II wrote, “…the purest dawn of our Redemption,” as her life brought forth the coming of our Savior. ”
Via divineoffice.org
Joann Nelanderlionessblog.com
Only, and far flung God,
Bursting upon the scene of Time
To start the clock
By uncreated might,
And usher forth
Your manifold good will,
In the splendor of creation,
Look on me,
In my becoming.
In this, the only now I know,
This precious fleeting instant,
Reveal Yourself evermore.
You entered Time
That Man might enter Heaven.
You, Who are Eternal Being,
Let me contemplate Thee
Wrapped in swaddling clothes,
Nursing at the Virgin’s breast,
Growing as men grow,
Yet knowing the Father Creator
As only Son.
I see Thee arrayed,
Transfigured in the Light,
Even as You are stretched
Between Heaven and Earth
On Your Holy Cross,
Becoming Sin,
And dying in my stead.
Lifted above the earth in Your divinity,
Higher than the mountains,
Yet pervading depth and breathe,
To shake and shape
The cursed land and Man anew,
In elegant Revelation of Mystery,
Rising from the dead,
To live in universal blessedness,
Across all time and space,
Known but by grace.
Copyright 2013 Joann Nelander
“A one-hour Fox News Reporting special, Planned Parenthood: Hidden Harvest, digs deep into the ghoulish but profitable practice of dissecting aborted babies and selling their hearts, brains, lungs, eyes, arms, legs and livers to the highest bidder.
Our friends at the Center for Medical Progress conducted a 30-month sting to get top officials from Planned Parenthood and the “procurement” companies they partner with to talk about this unfathomable practice while being covertly filmed.
With Hidden Harvest, anchored by veteran TV journalist Shannon Bream, Fox News will reveal to a national audience the way abortionists alter the way they extract these innocent victims from their mother’s womb to ensure intact organs and the callousness they demonstrate toward these babies. These are not clumps of cells being aborted; they are tiny humans whose hearts are more valuable to Planned Parenthood than their souls.
Does that sound like health care to you?
It’s not health care, and it’s not legal.
Hidden Harvest will premiere at 10 p.m. ET Friday, Sept. 4, on Fox News Channel and will be rebroadcast at 1 a.m. ET Saturday, Sept. 5.”
Fr Frank Pavone
Jesus, write the symphony of my life.
In Your Mystery of becoming,
Blend every note,
And sing the harmony
That embraces the sinner
To create the saint.
You are here
With the Father and Holy Spirit,
Supping and residing,
I receive You in Holy Communion,
Grant that I might never neglect You,
My Holy Guests.
I place You on the music stand of my life.
You are the Score,
And Conductor.
All I receive, I give
On the wind of the Spirit,
To be rightly arranged.
You be the music playing in my soul.
In chorus, Seraphim and Saints intercede,
And I and all creation dance with Miriam
As Jesus mediates the Victory
In His Song of Salvation.
© 2015 Joann Nelander
Immaculata-Patroness
Joann Nelander Studio 