You looked down
From Your Cross
To behold faithfulness.
There stood Your Mother.
You beheld her look of grief,
Her suffering Your pain.
You wed it
To Your Own,
Presenting all
Before Our Father’s holy throne.
© 2013 Joann Nelander
Jesus
All posts tagged Jesus
Mary, Mother,
Grace-filled vessel,
Poised throughout your life
To receive God’s word.
Always listening,
By obedience wooing,
From your holy infancy,
Caressing to your heart
The holy Word of God.
You conceived in your heart
Our God eternal,
Before He entered
Your virginal womb.
Grace upon grace
Your beauty unfolded,
In blossom so rare,
Upon this Earth.
Season upon season,
You moved in silence hidden,
In prayer secure.
O Mary Mother,
With kiss so sweet,
lavish upon me
Thy Holy Maternity.
I entrust to your sublimity
My formation within my mother’s womb.
Make happy that dear chamber,
In which my life and love
Were bequeathed and body grown.
“Behold your Mother,”
He said from His Cross.
Now, do I behold you,
And take you to my heart.
Speak here the words
You whispered in Christ’s ear
As He laid his little head
Upon your breast.
Jesus received from you
Milk and kindness
With gentle regard.
Caress now my humanity.
Make me ever your home,
As I welcome you to my soul,
Make me your hearth,
With fires burning bright.
Purify my moments
And sanctify my soul.
By virtue,
Virtue of your wedded Spouse,
Petition the Holy Spirit of Your Son.
Send angels, as you once did stewards,
To wait upon the words of your Son.
Miracles followed
On your behest at Cana.
I wait now and ever in your arms,
Embraced as the Christ Child.
Look upon me, dear Mother
And heal my wounded yet happy heart.
By Joann Nelander
Jesus,
Everyday, everyday, everyday,
Fall upon my tongue
As dew upon the obedient grass,
Which yields to Your Wind,
To be proclaimed anew.
Holy One,
Forever, forever, forever,
Go forth from my mouth,
As spring rains
To water the parched earth,
Thirsty for You.
©2013 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
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
O, Magnificent One,
O, Magnanimous One,
O, Adorable One,
In the splendor of Your Godhead,
You stoop to lift me.
As Father, You gently raise me,
To plant Your kiss.
You span the distance between us.
Your overcome the flesh, the world and Evil, itself,
In the humility of the Cross.
You paid the price of my son-ship.
Knowing Yourself from eternity,
Eternally begetting the Son.
You planned to make humanity holy
By the Spirit of Jesus, Your Only Son.
O, Magnificent One,
O, Magnanimous One,
O, Adorable One,
As You breathe forth Your Spirit,
I gasp and hold fast that Breath.
©2017 Joann Nelander
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