The music of God is all about us. When I listen in the Spirit, my heart sings.
With these pages, I wish to share the lyric of the songs I hear in the silence of my prayer.
Catholic
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Mother Mary,
You were with Jesus
From the instant
Of His Incarnation.
With your “Fiat”,
The Promise
Became a Man,
Dwelling with you,
In profound peace
And humility.
It was you
Who knew
This first intimacy,
Who cherished and adored.
Who waited upon Him,
With heart,
And mind,
And body.
The only eyes
That could see Him
At this tender age,
Were yours,
As you gazed on Him
With the eyes
Of your intellect
And soul.
An inward glance
Set your Immaculate Heart ablaze,
As you became,
Home and hearth,
And throne,
For a Child of one cell,
Growing and destined
To rule the world,
As He had reigned
From eternity.
A Man like no other
And, yet,
Intimately,
One with all.
Open our eyes
To your Son.
With the Centurion,
Who presided
Over the Crucifixion
Of the Christ,
And opened His Side,
End our idolatry,
So we, too, cry
“My Lord and my God.”
Mother Mary,
Behold your Son
In me.
Prepare me to be
Home and hearth
And throne,
For Christ alone.
©2012 Joann Nelander
Father, help me be patient,
As I receive the answer
To all my prayers.
In faith, I wait.
Trial, and time
In steady supply,
Over and round
By threshing sledge ground,
Crushed be
The husk of me.
Tossed, then,
High in hope,
To brave both
Flight and fall,
As Spirit winds,
A winnowing fan,
Carry my chaff
To all forgetful clouds.
Hallowed be the ground,
On which I come to rest.
Only Son,
Of Three in One.
Waiting, winning,
Gathering the wheat,
One with me
The answer be.
© 2012 Joann Nelander
I am the greatest obstacle
To my salvation,
Yet You leap the walls,
I have raised about me.
You breech them,
You penetrate them.
You shake and crumble them.
Your Holy Spirit
Is that quake
Of Calvary,
The earthquake,
That rattled open prison doors,
Destroyed the chains of those,
Commissioned to speak with Your power,
And in Your Name..
Place a high,
Insurmountable hedge about me.
One I can not leap,
When I hear the voices
Calling on the other side.
I know myself,
And that I shall try to flee.
For, though the boundary,
Be for my own good,
Fool, that I know myself to be,
Fleeing is in me.
All my hope
Is in the Love
You bear for me.
You, my Love,
Scale the walls of my pride,
O, Love, Who sets watch towers
On the heights,
And is enemy
To my enemies,
And the Guardian
Of my soul.
If heaven can be made more glorious,
Make it so, my Lord.
If the honor and respect, I show,
Sinner, though I am,
Can render
Your saints more glory,
For the light
They shine on men,
Make it so, my Lord.
If the blood of martyrs,
Can again be received
Before Your throne,
Mingled with the Blood of Christ,
That coursed their veins,
And flowed out
As rivers.
To wash the Nations
And praise Your Holy Name,
Make it so, my Lord.
All time is Now
In Your Eternity.
Your battles,
Though waging on earth,
Have all been won,
And presented to You
In Your Son.
“Thy Kingdom come!”
You make it so , O my Lord.
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
Seek grace before bliss.
To seek bliss,
Is to seek the gift
May be to shun the Giver.
Who conjures dreams matters.
My pleasure may spring
From forbidden springs.
Before I entrust
Myself to gods,
Should I not seek
To discern truth
From Truth.
Come, come,
O, kind Spirit of Truth,
Though You contradict my way,
I promise to obey,
Clad in Your grace,
Day by day.
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
I press my ear
To Your Heart, my Jesus.
With the beating rhythm,
That bounds within Your Breast,
My Spirit takes wing,
And rushes to Your Side,
That pierced and open side,
That Gate of Heaven.
“Enter,” You invite.
Leaving without my fear,
I enter in.
I am all ear,
You, all Heart
And Fire,
A furnace of Love.
My spirit faints
With longing.
A voice of spirit
Reassures and comforts.
In flight,
My soul alights,
Coming to rest,
As coming home.
You have always
Known me.
In an instant,
I know You,
And, only now,
Know me,
In consummate repose.
Glowing, two hearts beating as one,
Union of spirit,
Mine yielding to Yours,
To become truly myself.
Complete and Resplendent,
As the dawn of New Day,
Colored by a thousand rainbows,
Breaking ranks
And melting,
In a perfusion of light,
Dancing across my soul,
Reverberating, throughout the Universe,
In happy harmony.
O, Hallowed One,
We now are Three,
Your completeness
Embraces me.
I know all of heaven,
In knowing Thee.
Heaven has made room for me,
A sacred chamber,
And a mansion,
Raised in Your Rising in me.
I hear my new name
And am transfigured,
As You speak it.
Cor ad cor loquitor.
Copyright 2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
The Lord’s joy
Is my strength.
He persuades my heart
By gentleness.
His mercy is a fountain
Of inner mirth,
Springing up in all seasons,
To temper my sorrow,
To pour oil into my wounds,
To salt my friendships
And to delight the Father,
Who see me
Running after His Son,
And dancing with David’s abandonment.
May I be the dimple
In Your smile,
Appealing as the uplifted arms
Of a child,
And the innocent sleep
Of a baby.
Gladness be my swaddling,
That You may
Impart to me
The power the weak
Have to touch
The Heart of God,
Accepting always
His Loving will.
Copyright Joann Nelander 2012
The Breaking
And the Giving,
Broken bread,
Given life,
Mystery
And revelation.
The seed of Resurrection,
Hidden in the Pasch.
The mystery of Redemption,
Shrouded
By His suffering,
And dying,
Prefigured,
Broken Bread,
Given Life,
The Breaking
And the Giving,
“Do this in Remembrance of Me”
Copyright 2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
Jesus, Heart Afire,
Furnace blazing,
Fueled by Love,
Burning without consuming,
Radiant heat,
And all pervading.
Soul, drawn to escape
The hell of Darkness,
With an exchange
Of holy vows.
Free to flee,
Though enraptured
By superior desire.
Created One,
Of two natures,
Once at peace,
Fallen, then to warring,
Barred from Eden’s gate.
Blazing Promise
And Redemption,
Offering Sin’s undoing,
Constant in Your wooing.
Creat anew,
As once in Paradise,
Purified and restored
Exceeding recognition.
Raised beyond perfection,
Melted, purged,
Merged, and welded,
Seamless life as Mother’s garment.
To live now
In Thee,
For Thee,
Through Thee.
Knowing All
In knowing Thee.
Two natures,
Now at Peace
Both lost,
And found,
In Loving Thee.
Copyright 2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
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