Filed under: Poems
God the Father, holding Christ Crucified in His arms (embroidered image)
God’s Fatherhood as I see and sense it.
by Sister M. Linus Coyle
At night, alone, with the Lord and Mary,
I look up to the Fatherhood of God
and weep.
How many children again that day, O God,
willfully torn from a mother’s womb
deprived so brutally of its own life
with all the hopes that life possessed
but unable to encounter or to develop
that purpose for glory God had created!
Each, a child, yes a child:
never to know or to teach;
never to choose or to give;
never to belong or to accept;
never to be loved or to love others;
never to trust or to offer hope;
neither to find nor to show goodness;
neither to praise nor to thank God for
beauty with happy, joy-filled smile
with human voice or song,
and all the while fulfilling God’s plans
to be glorified within this personhood.
No, Christ had no chance to enter, nor to
achieve His Father’s plan within.
… and I weep for them, for all of us.
For life would never know that which was God’s desire
for those whom they’d companion or generate.
Lord of mercy, Lord of love,
forgive and transform all hearts,
this day, this night. Amen
God the Father, holding Christ Crucified in His arms (embroidered image) (detail)
Sister M. Linus Coyle belongs to the order of the Sisters of the Presentation. She receives our e-newsletter and sent us this poem/reflection on the dignity of each unborn child conceived in the image and likeness of God and on the sadness we all feel because of abortion.
God’s Language of Harmony
by Sister M. Linus Coyle
I looked into the mind of God,
His Will residing in the Son.
I looked into the heart of Christ,
and saw His Will fulfilled.
I looked into the Will of God
and saw its breath of Love.
I looked into the depth of Love
so Spirit shadowed from above.
This led me to each human child
Where God’s glory-hopes of love are fed.
And then I knew God’s fatherhood
as cherished image of His Son;
for life within a mother’s womb
would share Life’s weaving loom
freedom to begin again
in YES to life from Him.
The breath of Love might cherish yet
A life Christ entering would become
Sister M. Linus Coyle belongs to the order of the Sisters of the Presentation. She receives our e-newsletter and sent us this beautiful poem/reflection on the dignity of each unborn child conceived in the image and likeness of God.
A Chapel Dedication
On the occasion of the Chapel Dedication at Thomas Aquinas College, March 7, 2009.
Today the Mystical Body of Christ is enriched
And this Archdiocese made more fruitful
The Holy Spirit unleashed God’s bounteous gifts
To bolden Christ’s witnesses ever truthful.
A Church, exquisite in splendor, yet humble
Frail in human stature, enflamed by Heaven
Not burning as others might suppose, rather
A light on a hill, in a valley, for a Mission.
Incense smoke ascending, wafting throneward
By the breezes of prayer, and Dedication.
A quake felt thro’ and beyond the Church wall
A Grace quake tumbling out the doors to Creation.
Forty odd miles away it overswept me
This soothing tsunami of light and compassion
The Woman in her pangs of birth is enlivened
Her young scholar soldiers of Peace to fashion.
Good neighbors and great almsgivers did gather
With Aquinas and a saintly host on this day.
The founders had ardently desired fruition,
Of pleasing Him, to Whom true homage we pay.
George A. Peate
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
T. S. Eliot
Little Gidding
(#4 of ‘Four Quartets)
People are interested in their roots. Origins have become the rage. We learn from the past. Yet, humanity today is afraid of the womb, that place of secret origins and momentous beginnings. Humanity today – shackled as it is by “political correctness” – is no longer able to think clearly about any controversial subject. Because the pro-abortion lobby has gained political control of human “reproduction”, and fears to lose control, It obstinately refuses – absolutely refuses! – any possible link between the womb and the nursery, between the unborn baby’s ultrasound image and the newborn baby’s first photograph. The pro-abortion lobby defines them as two different species: the unborn as a growing subhuman entity and the born baby as a baby human being.
But humanity needs humility and truth. And when we contemplate our first tenuous months in the womb of our mother, we see how tiny we once were, how dependent and vulnerable and unable on our own… (Indeed, our futures too, in old age, may draw comparisons…) From the moment of conception a person, an identifiable (that is, unique and growing) human being exists and journeys forward. This amazing new unborn life beckons and calls out, first to his/her mother, then to the world…
The open-minded scientist who studies prenatal life moves from marvel to mystery to Miracle! If he or she completes the “exploration”. If “exploring” gets side-tracked, as it so often does, by “political correctness” – read “bowing to the pro-abortion lobby ” – then the opportunity to “know the place for the first time”, to sense the Miracle, is lost.
The sense of awe and wonder which should surround the unborn child in the womb must be fostered. You and I must encourage it! The future of humanity depends on it! If our culture and society forsake the unborn child in his/her beauty and dignity, then forsaking respect for all human beings will not be far behind.
We must encourage exploring-with-dignity-and-proper-intention of the world of the unborn baby. The womb must always be a welcoming place and the unborn child must always be welcomed in it. In this way we will “know the place for the first time”, and know that it is a sacred place for a holy purpose and its occupant is created in the likeness and image of God.
January 22 In America
It’s “that day” again.
Like any other day except…
From the bench they attacked us,
Those Solomon impostors
Knowing not when to cease.
Their wisdom aborted, their justice inept.
Morality’s sweet milk tainted-
The sacred standard of life succumbed.
Even the children seem lifeless today.
But on the horizon lies March twenty-five.
The feast of all hope and Christ alive!
His Incarnation to answer “bad justice” -
God’s Child is with us!
And in nine months only
We can embrace this tiny mercy.
December twenty-five, I will bend my knee
With the true wise men three,
Not to man’s injustice, but to a little baby.
By George A. Peate
Filed under: Poems
My love my treasured one are you
my sweet and lovely son are you
you are my love my darling you
Unworthy I of you
Alleluia …
Your mild and gentle eyes proclaim
the loving heart with which you came
a tender helpless tiny babe
with boundless gifts of grace
Alleluia…
King of kings most holy one
God a son eternal one
You are my God and helpless son
My ruler of mankind
This is a carol from the Hebrides (The group of Islands of the West coast of Scotland)
Filed under: Poems
A Child My Choice
By Robert Southwell (1561-1595)*
Let folly praise that fancy loves, I praise and love
that Child
Whose heart no thought, whose tongue no word,
whose hand no deed defiled.
I praise Him most, I love Him best, all praise and
love is His;
While Him I love, in Him I live, and cannot live
amiss.
Love’s sweetest mark, laud’s highest theme, man’s
most desired light,
To love Him life, to leave Him death, to live in Him
delight.
He mine by gift, I His by debt, thus each to other
due;
First friend He was, best friend He is, all times will
try Him true.
Though young, yet wise; though small, yet strong;
though man, yet God He is:
As wise, He knows; as strong, He can; as God, He
loves to bless.
His knowledge rules, His strength defends, His love
doth cherish all;
His birth our joy, His life our light, His death our
end of thrall.
Alas! He weeps, He sighs, He pants, yet do His
angels sing;
Out of His tears, His sighs and throbs, doth bud a
joyful spring.
Almighty Babe, whose tender arms can force all
foes to fly,
Correct my faults, protect my life, direct me when I
die!
*Father Robert Southwell, Poet, Jesuit, martyr; born at Horsham, Norfolk, England, in 1561; hanged at Tyburn, 21 February, 1595. He was imprisoned for being a Catholic priest in England at first in Topcliffe’s house, where he was repeatedly put to the torture in the vain hope of extracting evidence about other priests. Later he was transferred to the Tower of London. It is thought that much of his poetry, none of which was published during his lifetime, was written in prison. On the 10th of February 1595 he was tried before the King’s Bench on the charge of treason, and was hanged at Tyburn.
Filed under: Poems
In this painting by William Holman Hunt – The Triumph of the Innocents – The Innocents are seen with the Holy Family, in spirit, during the Family’s Flight to Egypt.
Hidden Legacy of Bethlehem
O Mary, obedient unto Christ’s birth
You carried the Savior to His manger
So that He might carry our sins to His cross.
O Joseph, chosen for a sacred duty
You adopted the Son of God here on earth
So that He might adopt us for His heavenly kingdom.
O Holy Innocents, martyrs all in suffering
You each did die instead of Christ,
So that He might die for my sins instead of me.
O Saints and heroes of Bethlehem
You opened the doors of your hearts to Him
Your actions foretelling the depth of His loving.
George A. Peate
Filed under: Poems
Last week, we had a post about Blessed Herman (a remarkable man. who overcame daunting physical limitations to become a saint in his time). We want to thank Julian for bringing to our attention this beautiful poem written about Blessed Herman. It was found in Father Benedict J Groeschel book, Stumbling Blocks or Stepping Stones.
Herman The Cripple
by
William Hart Hurlbut, M.D.
I am least among the low,
I am weak and I am slow;
I can neither walk nor stand,
Nor hold a spoon in my own hand.
Like a body bound in chain,
I am on a rack of pain,
But He is God who made me so,
that His mercy I should know.
Brothers do not weep for me!
Christ, the Lord, has set me free.
All my sorrows he will bless;
Pain is not unhappiness.
From my window I look down
To the streets of yonder town,
Where the people come and go,
Reap the harvest that they sow.
Like a field of wheat and tares,
Some are lost in worldly cares;
There are hearts as black as coal,
There are cripples of the soul.
Brothers do not weep for me!
In his mercy I am free.
I can neither sow nor spin,
Yet, I am fed and clothed in Him.
I have been the donkey’s tail,
Slower than a slug or snail;
You my brothers have been kind,
Never let me lag behind.
I have been most rich in friends,
You have been my feet and hands;
All the good that I could do,
I have done because of you.
Oh my brothers, can’t you see?
You have been as Christ for me.
And in my need I know I, too,
Have become as Christ for you!
I have lived for forty years
In this wilderness of tears;
But these trials can’t compare
With the glory we will share.
I have had a voice to sing,
To rejoice in everything;
Now Love’s sweet eternal song
Breaks the darkness with the dawn.
Brother’s do not weep for me!
Christ, the Lord, has set me free.
Oh my friends, remember this:
Pain is not unhappiness.
Filed under: Poems
Still hidden, still unknown as yet
within the heart and soul of Mary
was the Father’s plan of life for her,
His wondrous mystery,
a covenant of love
embedded in it’s hope-filled promise
of a regenerative power within her womb,
HIS plan for her,
all that she was meant to be for all of us,
Mother of the WORD made flesh,
so that from her body – her blood
The Son’s humanity might claim His own.
Then it was you, O Gabriel, angel sent by God,
as messenger of God’s redemptive love,
entrusted with calling forth
in humble praise and love
a handmaid’s “YES”
that she might choose
the overshadowing, whispering breeze
of the Spirit’s power to become Theotokos
“Mother of the Word” – God’s Son
O Gabriel, plead with God for us that we
become like you a messenger
to draw forth from:
those we meet,
those we live with,
those we care for,
all that has been planned for them.
Help us seek, help us find, help us nurture,
gently praise our God for those
sometimes hidden,
sometimes never understood,
sometimes irritating,
sometimes temperamental talents;
their each,
God given, created gene of life,
to call forth, open up, identify their hopes,
their attitudes, and unite ourselves with all
that embodies God’s Will for them in Christ.
“Glorify the Lord with me,
Together let us extol His Name.”
by: Sister M. Linus Coyle Jan. 2006
Sister M. Linus Coyle belongs to the order of the Sisters of the Presentation. She receives our e-newsletter and sent us this beautiful poem/reflection on the Archangel Gabriel. Tomorrow September 23 is the feast day of St. Linus. I wanted to wish Sister Linus a happy and holy day on her patron saint’s feast day. We have featured one of her beautiful poem/reflections before entitled The Annunciation.
Filed under: Poems
The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)
The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast,
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)
The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world’s desire.)
The Christ-child stood at Mary’s knee,
His hair was like a crown.
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.
Filed under: Poems
Advent Meditation
Rorate coeli desuper, et nubes pluant Justum
Aperiatur terra, et germinet Salvatorem.
No sudden thing of glory and fear
Was the Lord’s coming; but the dear
Slow Nature’s days followed each other
To form the Saviour from His Mother
—One of the children of the year.
The earth, the rain, received the trust,
—The sun and dews, to frame the Just.
He drew His daily life from these,
According to His own decrees
Who makes man from the fertile dust.
Sweet summer and the winter wild,
These brought him forth, the Undefiled.
The happy Springs renewed again
His daily bread, the growing grain,
The food and raiment of the Child.
Abbey-Roads2 has a great blog on St. Rose of Lima.
(It is her feastday today.)
