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Saints have prayed prayers,
Prayers hanging over Time,
Still being answered:
“God protect Your Church.”
“God spare Your People.”
“God forgive Sin.”
“God make holy.”
“God preserve and enlighten.”
Prayers that never end
Prayers forever answered.
by Joann Nelander
See, Sweet Lord, how noisy I am.
I come before Thee, the God Who Is,
With the clash and chatter of my day.
You, O Arion, the Lamb Standing,
Who appears to have been slain,
Reign, triumphantly before me.
You, O Agnus Dei, Lamb of God,
Establish, Your Rule and Victory,
In my poor heart.
In this Stillness,
You rest,
Having vanquished all Sin, my sin.
See, Sweet Lord, how I rest in abandonment.
I sleep, as a child, in Your arms,
Stilled before Love,
You, hidden,
‘Neath the appearance of Bread,
Succor me, now, in silence.
With the Living Water,
Flowing from the East side of the Temple,
Wash my life.
Quench my thirst,
Water my way,
Provide rich and abundant fruit.
See, Sweet Lord, my need,
Here, You, heal and restore,
Your Way in this New Day.
©2017 Joann Nelander
Lord, my tears are plentiful,
As I behold Thee in Thy rest.
Kneeling in poverty of spirit,
I am thrice blessed.
Your forever Union
With our Heavenly Father
Embraces me as the child,
That I am want to be,
Obedient, merciful and mild.
The Holy Spirit of God
Rests upon me,
Gifting me in sorrow for sin,
Raising me above the world,
And lifting me
To the lap of Abba Father,
With You, within.
Here in hallowed Presence,
My tears fall upon the garden,
You plant in my soul,
To water this consecrated plot
Replete with the promised fulfillment
That heals and makes me whole.
Already, but not yet,
Here in seed,
With You in Eternity,
Won by Cross and Passion-Deed.
©2012 Joann Nelander
Your people praise you, O Lord.
As points of light,
Scattered about
The surface of the Earth.
Together with angelic choirs,
That dot the firmament,
Your children sing.
With fish, and bird,
With rivers and seas,
With mountains,
And heavenly heights,
Creation sings in chorus,
Affirmation,
Acclamation,
And affection,
In sanctifying hosannas,
That fall as bountiful rain,
To water man and beast
With fruitful exaltation,
Multipling our delight,
As we magnify our God.
We are your mothers,
Fathers, sisters,
Brothers, friends
Of Your fold,
Returning praise,
And worship due
The Most High Lord
Of all creation.
In Your Light we
Become Your Light.
© 2012 Joann Nelander
It seems…
I am always talking to You,
That I am always with You,
And have no doubt
You are with me,
Listening and silent.
I am an endless monologue.
You, hovering Spirit,
Wordlessly eloquent
Abide.
You are Presence and Truth,
Listening and silent,
Thunderously silent,
Save for the stirring of my heart,
And the sometime rush of thought,
Coming, as it were,
From the bowels of my being
With frightening conviction,
And challenging my reticence
To speak aloud
The thoughts of solitude.
Reluctant always
To go about,
And leave the cloister of my heart,
Where in Your chambers I find,
And hold dear,
Private audience with the King,
The world without is a noisy charade,
And woos the pride of me take center stage.
Where suddenly I realize
I have been talking much, too much,
To my regret.
I, naggingly, suspect
I have diminished
What was my treasure
And ceased to learn.
Cacophony of me,
I cease to learn,
And simply rearrange,
That with which I am familiar.
Where do prophet, poet and a would be recluse
Find voice if not in You,
Rejecting even audience
To find You in my silence,
Your silence?
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
O, Mary, thank you for Your Child.
See my empty arms.
See my open heart.
Place your Treasure
In my embrace.
He smiles at me,
As I push aside His swaddling,
To gaze in awe
On the Babe of my redemption.
Mystery of mysteries,
Mercy of God,
You’ve come to me.
You’ve come for me
I dare a kiss on Your sweet brow,
My Emmanuel.
© 2011 Joann Nelander
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
Here I am Lord
I have brought the world and my day with me
What a motley crew arrayed before You
But not in vain.
We come with a clatter
My noise, our noise,
To the Silence.
The deafening roar
To the hallowed stillness.
Whisper in the chamber of our meeting
Where we tent with You,
Hope for the dying,
Faith to the listening,
Love to the willing.
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
Immaculata-Patroness
Joann Nelander Studio 