My Poetry

I would like to thank those who took the time to encourage me in the writing of this book, especially my bride, Mary Lou. She and our children have made living the Christian life very easy. I love you all very much.

My good friend Laurie McBrinn was the first person outside of my family to say kind words to me about my writing. Laurie only says something if she really means it so it was her encouragement that kept me writing. Another one of my colleagues, Jennifer Noll, read the greater part of the manuscript and refused to take any payment for her suggestions and time. I am very grateful to you, Jen. Any mistakes which I have missed will be corrected in a reprint of this book. Mr. and Mrs. James Hritzo and their children also had a tremendous impact on this work because of their beautiful faith. Getting to know Molly so well was truly an inspiration to me. Thank you for allowing me to teach her three times!

Monsignor James Mortimer’s love for the priesthood provided the greatest wisdom and gave the manuscript a real direction. When he had read the work and made his suggestions it put this book on the right path. He is a priest’s priest and a real gift of Christ to the Church. His life of dedication have made an indelible impression on me. He along with the priests at Mary Mother of the Redeemer and at Saint Bede’s have made a great impact on me. I would also like to thank Monsignor Alexander Palmieri of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who aided me in getting the imprimatur for this book and Diane Nguyen who prepared the manuscript for publication. Diane, God bless you and thank you for all of your hard work. You are a wonderful young lady!

Most of these prayers and poems grew out of preparing to teach the faith at Villa Joseph Marie High School in Holland, PA.

This book is dedicated to all of the priests and religious of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who taught me the faith.

Michael A. Bolognese

Know Me

Draw near!
I wish to be yours!
Do not take this Love
for granted.
Be sustained and partake of Me.
Let me see your face
and hear your voice.

Receive
a glimpse of eternity
in all of the sacraments,
most especially through
our Communion.

The very best awaits you!
Peace in your conscience,
hidden and silent,
will come as a teacher.

My holy sacrifice
shall ravish your amiable heart!
Acknowledge your misery
and consecrate yourself
entirely to Me!

In your adoration
let me behold you at My feet.

With virtuous living
and submission to My will
you must come and follow Me.
We’ll be together forever in Paradise,
and the Blessed Virgin will lead you home.

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The Promise and the Vocation

Talk to My little ones.
Tell them My Truth.
There are things being said
that are destructive to My children.

No longer wonder if what you say is true.
I have promised to teach
through those who have promised themselves to Me.
Remain united to Me!
The grace that comes is a promise.

Train my children
regardless of your lack of sophistication.
Find your competence in knowing and loving Me.
Understand and love each child

according to their uniqueness.
You must be available.

You must do it.
It is your role and your responsibility.
By your baptism you must share Me.

Learn to offer sacrifices

and run your life according to My plan.
Bring spiritual life to My children.
And above all teach what I teach
and not your own opinion.

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The Prodigal Father

What right do I have to remain silent?
Grace is never rival to freedom
and to speak the truth to you is necessary

for you to know the loss

of your own freedom.
You know that one good priest makes a difference

and that Jesus is the only source of real happiness.

Sin must be fled at all cost.

With sin we attempt to recreate the world
in our own likeness.
This reversal of Genesis is based on our own fear
of never being loved.

Evil chosen with mercy still remains an evil.
You cannot possess something good
apart from God.

Father who is the Prodigal,

you’ve been taught
that the more one does what is good
the freer one is.
Choose the good.
If you lose the Creator
then the creature himself vanishes.

The incalculable loss
of Confessions never being heard
and Masses never being said
is the deprivation of Truth Himself.

Come home.
Many will follow you.

Remember what you taught me:

there is no human sin
that can completely erase
God’s mercy.

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Wounded Daughters

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On the Loss of My Bride

and then to remember,
I was truly loved.

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Pure Love

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For Mom

alone with your writing
or preparing a meal
without a complaint.

You were always the hardest of workers.

You were the brightest star
in the family
and the one who made a home
with so little time for yourself.

You never complained.

You found joy in the saddest of situations
and never doubted the worth of your husband
especially in the most trying of times.

You were always positive
when we were without funds
for even in poverty we had wealth.

You gave us the incomparable wealth
of knowing Jesus Christ.

Mom I love you.

In your death there are no bitter memories
remaining between us.
There is only a longing to see each other again
face to face.

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Sacramental Grace (Promised Love)

I can make my life a prayer.
I can give my heart to her as a blessing!

When was the last time I did anything
just to please?
How much I can serve her
by the words I speak.
Elegant like a new flower,
brilliant like her diamond ring,
in good and bad times
I will respond with a blessing.

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Real Life

Lord, You chase after those who flee from You
and flee from those who chase after You.
You test the just.
Dispose me, Lord, prepare me from within.

You came into the world to die and to rise.
Fleeing from my suffering and death
will never help me understand salvation,
nor will it help me to be understood.

Remind me
that it’s going to take many martyrs
to cleanse the culture of death.

Make me ready.

Help me to understand
that You are more intimate to me
than my very self.
You are the foundation of virtue
and the key to understanding the meaning
of love.

Teach me that to follow You
leads to eternal life

and that without You
there is no real life.

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Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

You clutched your rosary as you went off to do His battle.
Your eyes were smiling as you spoke to your Savior.
They always sparkled with gladness when they saw God in a man.

Live on in love valiant soldier of Christ, Padre Pio,
and continue to pray for His children,
regardless of their knowing you, until the end of time.

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Modernism (a rejection of mystery)

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Messengers

Angels of God, a truth of the faith
created good before the universe.

You are personal beings with intelligence and free will.
Magnificently endowed outside of matter and space
you exist in the eternal outside of time.

A fundamental choice to love or reject God
lead your brilliant leader Lucifer
to a murky darkness.
He freely chose evil.

Now he is corrupted by a single choice:
to reign in hell rather than serve God in heaven.

The tempter of our first parents and of Jesus himself
is no respecter of persons.
Many turned from their Maker to follow the father of lies.
His superior shrewdness would not bow to beatitude.
Consigned yet spared, held captive by pride and envy,
he is forever out of the ordained will of God.
He now works on our senses to twist our imagination.
Satan and his legion chose ill will

thinking that this was the ultimate freedom.
Temptation is their moment to act,
interacting with our world, often unseen,
non-corporeal beings, pure spirits,
only to appear in a human form.

Those who were loyal, noble, sentinels of truth
accomplished in their loveliness and wisdom,
became subjects of their King.
Their everything is a yes to God
in the fullness of His grace.

Sacred soldiers of Christ, side by side with man
outside of sight but never out of reach,
you are a terrestrial and celestial fact.

Come touch what is sacred in us
and lead us to His everlasting light.

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He Calls to you, Kimberly!
Light from light and love from love
to exchange your pain for His!
He calls to you, Kimberly, to make you new!
Divine love is pursuing your soul to awaken you
and move you to the deepest love.
Be His true love!
Let His love break through!

Soul in His Soul and heart in His Heart
you will be in and like Him!
Go to Him in that Catholic Church, in that secret place.
Go alone before the Eucharist where He is truly present.
This is where you were meant to find your strength!
This is where you will find His glory!
In that moment of silence you can become one with Him.
Thinking not in terms of mere human judgment
you’ll move into your true desire and step into His heart of hearts.
Are you now really conscious that you were always being lead?

Friends who don’t understand seeing your newly found Christianity
will seek the love and see the change in you.
Tell them that they can find the same peace and learn
the hidden reality of the Son of God.
Tell your friends that everything depends
on being open to Him and being open to
whatever He wants at all times.
Reflect on His peacefulness and be transparent for Him.

Kimberly, we were made to lean upon Him
So that others can see Him in our weakness.

Remember, darling, we are not really weak if we lean upon Him.
It is then and only then we become truly strong.

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Prayer to Jesus in the Eucharist

I will make no secret of it
I will proclaim it!
I need Your Words to approach
and to arrive to you.
Without Scripture
I am a wilderness, a desert.

I know that your Gospel
is the only thing that touches real life.
I read and listen to Your Word
and it caresses my interior life,

speaking to me of true freedom.

Your intent is a personal encounter.
No one can add to what You give in the Eucharist.
Only when I too am a victim,
and attempt to make reparation
for my innumerable sins shall You be satisfied.
The past, present and the future
then become one reality in You.
It is then that I receive You worthily.
Your goal of our union
is for me to know and love You.

I am caught between worlds within worlds
as You look at me.
I long for your Spirit to fill me.
I feel Your compassion.
These feelings by themselves
do not make me love You
but they do direct my heart.
The nearness of You in our time alone
raises me into the life of the Trinity.
Holiness is a matter of surrendering
to a radical dependence on You.
Make my loving You this reality!

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!

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Prayer to St. Thérèse

Thérèse, you love Him with such great loyalty!
Jesus is the august prize of which so few know.
He is the grand gift, of which you spoke.
You know Him as only a little one could.

Jesus, You are the great giver of immortality.
Thérèse you are His littlest of flowers.

Jesus you are the satisfaction of aching souls.

Thérèse, You are the gentlest of His children.

Thérèse hear my prayer. Intercede for me.
Illumine what love is.
Spend your heavenly life doing good on earth! Amen.

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Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Minutes of silence call me to You,
begging me to listen,
bringing me to faith,
joy,
and optimism.

I wait for our time together,
I want to whisper into the ear of Christ
and at last to be alone with my God.
I want to reign with You.
Please transform my thoughts.

I want to exist for You, for love.
Make this silence Your Word to me.
I am an unshaped log fit for the fire.
Burn me in Your love. I await Your spark.

O Holy Spirit, be no longer the great unknown.
I want to know You.
Sanctify me. Be the center of soul.

Breathe where You please.
Give me the docility to go forward.

I am no arbiter of morals.
I am no great revelation of human wisdom.
I err all too frequently and lack refinement.
Do not let these distractions be as daggers in my mind,
voices of evil to take my peace away.
Teach me to really pray
for there is no sanctity without it.

Make prayer my highest intention.
Give me a new plan for my life so as to seek virtue.
Virtue too easily escapes me when I am not at peace.
Teach me to throw aside any illusions,
which would keep me for doing Your will.

I want my soul to be one with my God.

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The Soul Speaks to the Mother of Christ

Why did you choose to give me
such love and attention,
and how can I ever repay you
for your love?

Has there ever been a moment
when we didn’t really know each other,
when we didn’t exist to be made one in Christ?
Did you see me through the eyes of our Maker
and then choose to sculpt the man I was meant to be,
or was it simply your own choice to love me,
and then conform me into His image?

It never ceases to amaze me that you see Christ
through this sinful heart.
My sculptress, tap away at my selfishness,
cut sin out of my life.
O golden vessel of chastity
may you contain me and use me.

Someday, my Queen,
You will draw me nearer and nearer
until I become Him

by my surrender.
My pure beloved, may you mold me!
Then will our new love become a new life for Christ
formed by your motherly heart.

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Prayer to Teach As Jesus Did

To teach as You did
with sincerity and truth
and to find answers
and then give them away.

This is my goal:
to pursue and to work and achieve
all for the sake of Your sorrowful passion.

I love you Jesus!
My simple prayer is
to make atonement for my sins
by showing children Your way.
To me there is nothing more meaningful
than instruction in the faith to spread Your glory
and to secure the salvation of souls.

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Prayer Before The Rosary

Mary,
to be in accord with ancient tradition
and to better know your silent docility,
I pray this time honored Rosary.
Christ deserves the best
and I must not settle
for doing less.

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Suffering

Jesus,
What must I do for eternal life?
Your beatitudes answer that question.
That heaven must begin right here and now
and that all the way to heaven is heaven
if our hearts are fixed on You.

Trying to say the ineffable,
that Calvary is at the center of space and time
leads me to understand
that there are really only two fears in life:
suffering and death.
Because of our union even my suffering
can be a part of the redemption of the world.
It is You who select me to share in Your cross.
All must have a share in redemption.
No one will escape the mystery of suffering.
Your very life is that mystery.
Teach me that life comes through your death
and that suffering and death
is found in its fullness in You.

Your grace,
which lifts me above the effects of my sin,
will lead me through to the moment of my death.
The moment of death is the moment
of truth and life.
This is why understanding
the meaning of suffering is so important.
Suffering will bring me closer to You.
Your intention is for me to enter into your suffering.

When I put on Your mind
the mercy of purgatory becomes plain.

Suffering is one of the most important gifts in life.

Why do I waste it?

Mystical Body

“Mommy, are those happy or sad tears?”
My child and I watch this undeniable clash
of sadness and joy;
both of us witness the passing
of a human life.

We suffer together
and we rejoice together
in this community of God called family.

Now our simple souls
don’t need complicated means to pray.
We count on the prayers of the Mystical Body
in times when there can be no words.

With the embrace of His grace we trust in Him.
He will get us through this suffering.

We cry if need to cry.
We shout if we need to shout
and we let Him take home this child
whom He entrusted to our care.

Gently we lay our souls at the throne of love
and learn to trust.
It is Christ who reigns in our hearts
and He must be loved more than any other.

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Prayer to Be Like Jesus

Lord, teach me to number my days and not to waste a moment.
by challenging, encouraging, and inspiring those You have placed before me.
Give me wisdom to seek You sincerely in the midst of difficult times
and always desire to know and do Your will.

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Prayer for Christian Baptism

Men and women have died so that I may believe.
I know this.
I am the poorest of sinners
but I am available and wish to be used.
Take what remains of my life
and use it as You will.

From this moment on
I want You to make a change in me.

Bring about Your healing in my soul.
Fill me with Your unchanging sweetness.
I desire holy Baptism
and I want to give You all of the love
that I have to offer.

Help me partake of Your Sacrament,
and be made one with You.
The saints are here
with Your countless angels.
Sinners now pure, exalt you.
They know this, my desire.
And they pray for our union.
The promise now kept
is one that You made
at the dawn of time.
You have called for me
and I want to be born again.

Never leave Your simple child.
I belong to You
and I am all Yours.

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The Birth of Mary

Little Mary,
you are the most perfect compliance
between God’s dream and reality.
The earth harmonizes with heaven
rejoicing at your infancy!

Someday He will seat you above princes,
and above angels.
But for now the Universe
awaits your womanhood
and your yes.

Through you He will come,
never to be separate from His mystery.
You are His Beautiful One,
impeccable and unique,
the future Seat of Wisdom.

You shall conceive the All-Holy One.
Be full of His Grace and tenderness.
I will find you and discover Christ.
You are my hope.

Glorious Queen,
you will do whatever He tells you
and the sword will pierce your heart
to allow sinners to draw near.

Grant that I may serve Your Son
by serving you with His abandonment.

Mother of God be my mother
and lead me to Your Son.

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Mother of Mystery

Who is this rose of consoling gentleness?
And who am I
that the Mother of My Lord
should come to me?

I am but a broken child wanting to be embraced

by a Mother‘s love.

But you, the perfect model,
the ideal of God,
I who know that you were prepared

from all eternity to be ‘the woman’.

I rejoice in you, Mother of God.
You are the Immaculate Bride

who was chosen before time
in a moment of celestial innocence.

Mary, you cradled Eternity
and nursed Infinity.
You are that fair brightness
and radiant sign of grace.

You are the Mother of Mystery
and I beg you to heal this poor dust.

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Prisoner of Love

Saddened by my conduct
You invite me to sit before You.
It is You who show your power best
through human weakness.
Your word challenges me to approach.

Golden metal surrounds You.
Your concealed embrace grasps me.
I am here to surrender to one goal,
and that is Your love.

It is tiresome in this lifelong desert.
What secret must I find to see You?

Invisible Maker of the universe,
I choose Your world
and the realms of Your love.

To see all your Beauty
and to hear You speak
is my one desire.
You are the True Faithful Priest.

Make me a window for You.

Your merciful forgiveness,

Your reachable gaze at your altar
shrouds this mystery:
that by ordained hands
You have become
the sublime prisoner of love.

(Inspired by the words of Benedict XVI)

Your Passion is the highest confrontation
between Light and Darkness.
The Paschal Mystery is the heart of our faith.
It is Your ultimate gift to humanity.

Aware of my own night and darkness
I desire to place myself
at the foot of Your Cross.
I worship You.
In this act of self-surrender

I am called to interior meditation.
Only You can shatter the veil of my sadness.

You are risen
and have conquered death forever.
You have become my life
and have overcome death by Your Love.

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Prayer for Faith

Only in delicate wonder can faith be preserved.
It is my actions that often determine my faith.
Could it be that is actually faith that determines my actions?

The finest qualities of our souls may often go unrevealed
waiting for the proper moment
but we must be sojourners in an uncivilized land
while heaven’s calling remains.

Be not distant to me, Eternal shores.
Come again, Divine Indweller.
Reign unchained on earth in Your Divinity.

Consider in Your transcendence
the weakness of my faith.

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Little Jesus (the Nativity)

Little Jesus,
in this night of silence God is with us!
Everything is the same and yet nothing is the same.
Everything is changed and yet nothing is changed,
unless I change.

Little Jesus,

give comfort to your people, and speak tenderly to Jerusalem!
Be that voice that cries out for joy.
Reveal your glory for all to see.
Your Word is eternal and must be proclaimed!

The Father says not to fear to cry out and speak of His glory.
In You salvation comes to the world.

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Delight

You are the God of endurance and encouragement!
May we live in You and may I always glorify You.
Jesus, I am not worthy of this great love.
Your Holy Spirit will give me wisdom and of understanding
to guide my heart.
You are mightier than I!

You have baptized me with water and the Spirit

and I am grateful that You have called me.
May my delight always be found in loving You.

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The Promise (Genesis 3:15)

Every man is Adam.
Every woman is Eve.
The Father creates us out of His own love.

Eve’s form contained all beauty
and Adam’s frame contained all strength.
They were loved only for themselves
and not for what they might be.
It was Almighty God who gifted them
to be perfect parents
and cast them for the roles
which they would play.

The mother of all living
and the father of all men
- what could be seen with their eyes?

The two of them together
formed humanity, an intimate communion.
Their moments together begged for thanksgiving!

Beneath the leaves of newly created forests
did they wonder what God would do next?

The attraction of the forbidden

proved to be their undoing.

Eventually they would both choose
imperfection and become bankrupt
exchanging the best of lives
for their misunderstanding.
Sin initiated a darkness within
that earned the both of them death.

Composed of discord
and meaningless suffering
Satan’s scheme was evil itself.
His comic vision perpetuated their folly
and malformed them in fear
instead of acceptance.
Truly alone, the two were lost
without any delight
in a Paradise that was made for them.
With words unspoken a promise was made
that someday God would bring
the Eternal into time.
A woman’s yes would mother a love
beyond all telling.
Redemption would come.

God would stretch forward to unravel
the world’s confusion.

There would be a New Adam and a new Eve.

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The Simple Truth

The secret is out! It is I. Do not be afraid! Listen to My words and act!
The most powerful person in the universe lies hidden beneath the form of bread in the tabernacle. Be no longer afraid or alone. God is here.

Discover the miracle of the presence of God. It is the spirit that gives life.

The flesh has nothing to offer.
Do not judge according to appearances.
I am the really real.

What is this surge of the heart?

Prayer is its own reward,

a kind of a delicate texture

which fashions our life.

He, who we cherish

leads us to His throne.

Where does prayer come from?

It is God’s gift.

Trying to hear what was in the wind

allows us to inherit

the Author of the Sun.

Love leads us.

According to Scripture,

it is the our heart which prays.

Prayer is the response of faith.

In my remaining years

I will turn my face

more exclusively than ever to You.

You have given me this life

and I want to be faithful.

Because of prayer,

I now understand

that I am really known.

Great is the mystery of the faith.

Great is the gift of prayer.

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Come

I want you to know Me.
I am here, yearning to fashion your spirit.
Draw near!
I wish to be yours!
Do not take this invitation for granted.

Let me see your face and hear your voice.
Mary’s most tender, motherly heart
comes with my Holy Spirit to enfold you.
She longs to inspire in you
a fervent love, and a gentle penitence.
You will receive a glimpse of eternity
through our Communion.
The very best awaits you!
Peace in your conscience, hidden and silent,
will comfort you.
Acknowledge your need for Me
and consecrate yourself entirely to Me!

We’ll be together forever in Paradise,
and the Blessed Virgin will lead you home.

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Prayer to Respect My Students

Father, today they are someone’s daughter, sister or best friend. One day they may be someone’s doctor, judge or perhaps some child’s mother!

They may one day even help form a soul that will draw Christ down from heaven to be present on the altar.

Lord, help me always to see the young women I teach as women who bring Christ into the world. Help me never to judge them. It is You alone who know the human heart. Amen.

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My First Daughter

You are a tender hearted, red haired, angel and stepdaughter who chose and decided to love me.
Skinny, freckled, wise, Irish girl could we be closer if God alone made us so?
Would you love me even more if I helped make you?
Would that I was part of your conception so that my blood could also flow through your heart.
I am not too foolish to wonder if God granted me even greater mercy by having you come into my life at a later time.

Heaven gave you life and gave me deeper meaning through your existence.
So different are we, this daughter in her thirties, and her ‘father’ in his fifties.

Have I arrived too late to be any use to you?
Will any grace I have make a difference?

Suffering for you will be my wager,

a mortal secret to grant you your immortal home!

Sadly I watch you go from relationship to relationship seeking but never finding, never finding His real Love.
Searching for your certainty down uncertain paths makes me wish that you would travel to meet my Maker.
Would you love Him if you believed His love would last?

I watch you try to learn about love from unholy teachers.
These men act like vicious boys showing their high school trappings even in their middle age.
They are fools who take what they should be giving: a sacrificial love that begs to reach you in a partnership that is meant to last.

You dream visions of a greater place and of a higher goal that calls to you.

Could this new man pass the test of time in seeing you, as you are, a gift from God to him?

I often wonder from a far, will he love you as you really are?

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Mary and the Mass

Mother, as I approach the end of this era
when the crucial elements,
the sacred, no longer satisfy so many,
help me to seek those elements
which can make me a saint.

Instruct me with your words
and teach me not to seek the extraordinary
but the simple.

Receive in this son,
the disorder of my manhood.
which is focused on time
and not on the Eternal.
Bring back the treasures to me
that seem to be lost.

In these moments of grace
restore openness to my soul
so that the Divine may enter in.

Make of me a pure oblation.
In the majestic ceremonies of this Sacrifice,
we cannot hope to establish harmony
without your steadfast aid.

To give my life to God
is the beginning and end of the eclipse
which returns me to your arms.

Teach me to render
the worship He is due.
Take over the interior movement of my soul.

Make me to be both virtuous and pleasing
so as not to forget
the infinite value of His sacrifice
on the altar.

O Glorious, beautiful and beloved Mother,
teach me that this Victim is the same
as when you held Him in your arms.

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True Love

It is of no little account
this scandal of the cross.
We are to be ridiculed
and to be misunderstood
but must accept it all in joy!

More important than being right
and more important than being in control
is a life well ordered to Your purpose
and centered in this selfless love.

I want to be grounded in Your truth
and come to know Your purpose.

I want to grow closer to You each day
and to stand next to You as a gift
cherishing Your desire to live
and learning to be Your true love.

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It’s All About You

Your way is straight and true
but the more You call me
the further I try to escape.
Like a fool I flee happiness.
I run away.
But inside of me
I really only want and long to be Your love.
This constant calling
that I’ve conditioned my self to ignore
has changed me.
My desire is only to listen and be with You.

It’s all about You Jesus and not about me.
In the deepest part of my being
there is only Your call and Your song.
To be forgotten or remembered for You,
it is all in Your hands.
My strength is in being totally Yours.

It’s all about You Jesus, and not about me.

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The Domestic Church (A Holy Family)

Living tabernacle of God
and of your beloved,
with your own designs your child whispers
the newness of life within you.
As sure as Christ breathes life into this soul,
a soul shall leap forth from mother
for a mother’s womb is too small
to eternally encompass God’s caring
for an immortal soul.

The Creator of all reality
and the Divine Sculptor says
fresh air will be needed
to fulfill His plans!
Your twentieth century Joseph
shall await the baby’s arrival
as will you, a new Mary.
Together you’ll form a trinity,
a Holy Family,
to teach your young infant of Christ,
our great Hope.

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Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Unchained Heart, relentless in your pursuit of love, make me your slave and let me find You in all your completeness. Most Hidden Lord, pardon the sins that I

have committed and strengthen my heart. Be its king. May your heart dwell always in my heart. Consume me, inflaming me to do your will. Most humble heart, work within me and renew me. Teach me to be relentless in my pursuit of You and Your Unchained Heart.

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Fatal Luxury (on Abandonment)

The poor will be our greatest asset,

for they know what is essential and important.

It is our fatal luxury,

a life focused on possessions,

which always leads to unhappiness.

There is within us a childish taste for the transient.

We pretend and in our masquerade

we are pitiful and grotesque.

But the fleeting pleasures of life never satisfy.

Really knowing Him is our destiny

and not a passing joy.

It is only in the believing eyes of our soul

peering into the empty tomb that reforms us.

We must never be a people without faith.

Our desire for possessions lead us to be insulated.

We don garment after garment of bogus skins,

entrapments to protect us from Divine correction.

Our savage lusts must never desert the Eternal.

The wastelands of materialism

do not belong to Christ.

Let us aim at Him who is the highest.

There is no need for a crisis in our lives

before we abandon ourselves to Him.

The only glory that matters

is the one that lasts forever.

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Prayer Based on John 1

You are the Word and all that is awaits You to speak life.
You were there in the beginning and because of You all begins anew.
Without You nothing came to be. There is only the void of nonexistence.
The universe came into being through You and the entire universe awaits you to come again.
You are the light of humanity. You are the beacon for all who exist.
Jesus, You light the darkness and those outside of Your light do not understand life or its meaning.
John came as a witness that all might believe through You.
He was not You, but came that he might bear witness of You.
You were in the world, and the world was made through You, and yet we did not know You.
Jesus, help all to know You.

Speak your Word to all hearts.

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Prayer for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (John 3)

I trust You. Tell me what You know and have seen. I want the gift of Your Holy Spirit. The world must be saved through You! You speak of heavenly things and often I do not believe. I want to believe! I want eternal life! I want to live Your Truth and come into Your Light. You’ve said that that everyone who believes in You may have eternal life. Lift me up to my knees and give me that life. You must increase; I must decrease. I want to see the Lord of my life. I want to be your bride. I want the gift of your Holy Spirit.

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Prayer for Conversion (John 2)

Jesus change my water into wine. As the wine stewards did at Cana, I will do whatever You tell me.
In my old age You have saved the best wine till now, making my life complete in You.
There is no need to prove Your authority over me. My body and soul desire to be your vessel. Fill me. Being holy is a matter of surrendering to You and being radically dependent on Your grace. I should never have too inflated an opinion of myself. I know my emptiness without You.

Cleanse me interiorly, for You know what is in me.

Jesus change my water into wine.

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Sole Necessity

You are my shelter, my sole necessity in life.
I have searched for a home and have found it in You
You are my place of warmth and affection,
my hiding place, my guard.

In this life I have become a child again
through Your Mother’s intercession.
There is no longer any room to be discontent.
There is only a wellspring of hope.

People may say that they know many things of life
but only one thing is necessary.
I know You and I will never be the same again.

You are my sole necessity in life.

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Tender Surrender (prayer for Bryanna Thérèse)

You are my greatest teacher.
Precious gift without a return address,
you are God’s gift to us in infant form.

Was your mother wrong to want you?
Her tender surrender has become our love for you.

My little lady, work hard so that God
will be known and praised!

Life is a mystery to be lived
and Jesus is the center

of the mystery!

Remember that you are as happy as you choose to be.

Try always to make your big decisions
with your head and your heart
and promise Daddy never to let your heart be broken.

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Sweet slavery is the gift of Your Passion.
Let it be the path for my soul.

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Receive Me (the voice from the altar)

Live in My Presence and fear no danger.
I offer you everlasting serenity.
Give away your priceless time.

Sell your possessions.
Let your ways become My ways
and My dreams become Your dreams.
There is no value to life unless I lead you.
Place Me in the center of your heart.

Seek to discern My message
and let me speak to you.
True love alone
affords a knowledge of the heart.
My Love does not thrive on ignorance
but valor.
I am not a shadow or a memory.
I am that noble intention placed within you.
I am your Eternity present in each moment.

Receive Me.

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The Simple Song (John 4)

He’s the miracle man from long ago.
He’s the sad sinner who is saved from woe.

He’s our restless days put to rest.
He’s the faithful man put to the test.

Worship if you know the Messiah king.
Worship and He’ll explain what life brings.

He’s made us One by His Word.
He’s made us One as our Lord.

He’s the poor man who has no friend.
He’s the one who brings sorrow to an end.

If you want to be healed He’s the one to see.
If you want to be whole He’s the One to be.

It’s not about being right.

It’s not about being wrong.
It’s about finding the Singer

and becoming His song.

Jesus, I believe You are the Prophet

and I come to know
that Your peace and contentment

is meant to grow!

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The Way of Perfection

I want to be more for You.
Realizing my imperfections makes me know that I must do more.
When thoughts of my own spiritual mediocrity cheat me of joy make me Your instrument.
Play Your hymn upon my heart.
My personal Passion can be Your song of joy.
When my spirit saddens because I feel as if I am not doing enough help me realize that with every day begins a chance to draw closer to You, to love You more.

Perfection comes only when we become love for You.

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Your Time

You are the greatest gift.
Tired as I am from our journey You comfort me.
I am more often a sinner than a saint yet you are still never far away.
Our communion will let me feel your presence if only I show the slightest fervor.
With You I am never totally alone.
Emptiness can be the best teacher when it leads me to You.
Time is meant to make me aware of always being in Your presence.
Always grant me the gift of Your time.

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His Well (John 4)

I thirst for you.

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink would you come?
You thirst for Me as well and yet you say no to your thirst.
The secret that was never meant to be concealed is my unquenchable thirst to love You.

My well is deep.
I am where you are and in your deepest desires.
To get this living water of love will you take a drink?

All of the beauty and truth that you see in life is but a mere glimpse of Me.
All life’s union is but a shadow of this eternal communion.

Come to the well.
Come to Me.
My depths are immeasurable.

Love’s author begs you to come!

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The Divine Hobby

The horror begins when I realize that I’ve been untrue to You.
Foolishly I’ve made You into a hobby instead of my love.
I don’t really listen to You speaking to my heart.
I don’t really change to draw nearer to You.

I’ve allowed my vocation to become a job and in place of daily conversion I’ve chosen routine as my way of life.

I see You in the big things that please me but rarely in the little things that annoy me.

Draw me into Your chamber. Convert my heart all over again. Make me come to know You in all things and in all persons and never let me go. I want to come to be Yours in everything that I do. I want to be Your servant and never one who goes through the motions of service. I never want to stop being in love with You.

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All humanity has made mistakes in the name of love.

Each person holds memories that are not beautiful.

You cannot erase circumstances that made you feel sorrow.

You can view the world through My eyes of love.

Life’s events are meant to lead you to Me.

There is nothing that happens outside of this purpose.

When friends and family misunderstand you

remember that I too was misunderstood.

Know that I know your heart and the truth within it.

It is My heart that I want you to know.

It is My heart that will give you real purpose

and real meaning in life.

The one who serves the best wins the greatest union.

The one who serves the best is nearest to My heart.

Serve the ones whom I have entrusted to you with joy.

Love the ones who are the least lovable.

This is the real test of love;

how well you love those who do not love you.

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Piece of Me

Take the piece of Me that is all of Me.
I am the Little Bread that is given for all.
There is power unreserved in My littleness.
I am given just to you yet I am made for all.

I resemble a tiny circle of Bread
yet I contain all that is and ever will be.
Fall in love with Me all over again.
In this holy exchange of persons,
I shall become you and you will become Me.
This is the way of all lovers.

Our Communion is the act of love
that makes all love real.

When you turn away from the person
who really loves you,
you will never be truly happy.

Take the piece of Me that is all of Me.
Make Me your own.

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On Fatherhood (inspired by Sirach 3)

A son sees in himself the reflection of his father.
Sometimes it is difficult

or wonderful to view this reflection.

If you admired your dad

it is a blessing to see him live through your own life.
If you did not admire your father

seeing him in yourself can cause you

anger and pain.

This witnessing of his life in you

could make it difficult to love your very self.

Sons and daughters,

sometimes it’s difficult to be a father.

You see your own failings

and you recognize how critical you may have been

to your own dad.

You may even become the father you did not love.

Daughters love your fathers.
A happy daughter’s love for her father

is almost limitless.
She sees in him a love that is real.
She smiles when he comes to greet her

and she longs for his approval.
The love she has for her father

instructs the love she will have for her husband.
She learns compassion by seeing it in her fathers’ eyes.
Fathers, promise to love your daughters

and to speak kindly to them.
You may never know the good

that a gentle word may bring.

Fatherhood is a chance to become

more like our heavenly Father.

Fathers are at the head of their family

in His Eternal plan.
And God says whoever honors his father

makes up for his own sins

by cherishing the Eternal Father

who is in his earthly dad.

Kindness to your dad will never be forgotten.
Even when it is difficult we should love our fathers.

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Short Prayer to Trust

Infinite expectations, You give me infinite expectations.
The victory of Your cross is achieved in time
but received in Your eternity.
Charity is the only investment that never fails.

Reawaken my spirit and keep me awake.
I can see but a piece of what is to be.
I don’t need to understand it all.

Lead me confidently in the direction of Your dreams.

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Bread of Life

Bread of Life, come.
Feed me from Your table.
I will not be afraid.
Like the boy with the loaves and the fishes.
I too have little, but it is enough.
You may feed others with all that I am.
I give myself to You.

Large crowds followed You
because they saw the signs.
I follow You too because of the miracles

You have worked in me.
I have never found a companion like You.
In my solitude I am not tired
of hearing Your voice.

I am for the most part lonely
living in this world.
But because You have called me
I am not afraid.

Bread of Life,
be my Bread always.
Come feed me forever.

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Prayer of a Mother at the Tsunami

The day the nightmare began evil was indiscriminate.
It is my children’s agony that I remember most.

“The wave is coming, the wave is coming”, they screamed while they played in the sand.
My children had just collected their shells from the receding tide.
Then there was this roar and rush of water.
One hundred and thirty thousand souls would meet their Maker in an instant.

We were tossed cruelly and submerged against our will.
We held our breath.
We knew we could be dying.

I floated to the surface and swam to search for my family.
Dazed and shrieking people called out for their young.

Trying to run away from the sea proved futile for my little ones.
Their twisted bodies rose sporadically from the depths.

Just as in the time of Moses, when the children’s bodies floated in the Nile, my holy innocent drifted aimlessly towards the shore, sacrificed without any explanation or meaning.
Broken bodies kept coming to the surface as I cried out to God: “Why the

children, why here and why now”?

Sorrow chilled my heart.
The only way to conquer my sorrow was never to yield to it.

I wept and prayed in a whisper, “May your angels lead you to Paradise”.

Their cremation fires eventually lit up the night.
It was only at that moment I believed that perhaps God had taken them home.

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and may Your perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
Amen.

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To Be Redeemed

Jesus, You are not an abstract.
You are the most concrete.
All realness depends on You.
Your cross was not symbolic.

I need to stand in awe of You.
Like a fool I find things
that I think are more important
to replace our time together.

In order to be wise
I read things that I think
will make me wiser,
I dream about achieving things
that will make me more lovable
all the while running away
from the true source
of Wisdom and Love.
I long for You and yet every part of me
desires to remain the same
rather than do what is necessary
to become more like You.

Foolish heart driven by a foolish notion.
If you met Love
would you really know Him
or would the thought
that you could be so blind
drive you even further away
from His beauty?

The grace of humility is the only way
that I can hope to see You.
Help me remember that I don’t have
all the answers.
When I am distracted in prayer
help me to empty my mind
so that You may fill it.
When work gets to be a burden

help me to know that You are there
every step of the way to give meaning
to even the most meaningless of tasks.
In the moments that I doubt
help me to remember
that all belongs to You
and You are in control.

All of my existence needs to stand redeemed.
There must never be any moment away from You.
There must never be a second away
from the reality of Your Love.

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The fairer sex possesses a heart

to transform a girl into an woman.

Our mothers risked their lives

to make our life.

We should recognize our origin.

We should always remember our moms.

Children love your mothers.

Youth is restored to you

by serving your mother.

The unforgettable figures

with whom you have grown

could never replace the woman

God gave as your mom.

Honor her, as God commands you

so that all may go well with you

and so you might together share

eternal life.

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To Perpetuate the Memory

It is simpler and more respectable
to pretend to be the same.
But I do not care what others think.
To perpetuate the memory of You
is a Divine command.
When Your silence is not understood
there is always a lack of peace.
But it is in silence that I hear You.

I have in me an incomplete understanding.
In many ways I am far from You.
But I will commemorate and celebrate
this New Passover till I see You again.

Your death is not a melancholy memorial.
It is my life.
It is Your Father who gives us
the true bread from heaven
to give life to the world.

Isn’t His way always to preserve life
rather than destroy it?
Why should He not preserve Your life
in this world when His children need You?

I will embrace this seemingly insane ambition
to be always with You.
I will always celebrate the Eucharist
until You come again.

You are the Bread of Heaven given
for the life of the world.

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Another Day to Love You

You come to me.
You are silent as held breath
as I receive You behind sheltered eyes.
I give You the gift of myself.
I offer You my earnestness.
Do You see the same in me?

You flower within me as I turn to You.

It is in Your arms that I live.
As You dissolve within me, dissolve me.

Make everyday another day to love You.

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Any Price (the conversion of Dorothy Day)

When she was young
she didn’t worry about tomorrow.
She only thought about today.
She didn’t dream she would grow old;
she thought that she would be forever young.
However, time would not stand still
and one day she became an adult.

Appearance was everything.
Sometimes she deemed others worthless
if they weren’t good looking or bright.
Sometimes she thought she was wasting her time
if she associated with a person
who was less than perfect
or didn’t have money.

She was truly selfish.

The friendships that were so much a part
of her younger years didn’t last.
Friends changed and went their separate ways.

All the late nights she would put into dreams
and all the relationships
that would last a few years
and then dissolve
would make her life seem transitory.
Loneliness would even push her to the pursuit
of destructive pleasure.
She would go through multiple relationships
looking for ‘love’ just to try to end her loneliness.
Betrayal became a part of her normal existence.

Suddenly her own child helped her to become wise.
She realized that her shallow perception
of what was real and true
was twisted by a vision
of what was not eternal.

When she thought of the beginnings
that were really endings
and all the sane schemes
that gave way to insanity,
Christ was the only one who really mattered.

Her pain eventually became meaningful
because it brought her to a conversion.

If she could leave her world anything
it would be the wonder of knowing
how real Christ is
and that loving Him in the poor
is worth any price.

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The Visit

Wonderfully strange and shamelessly wonderful
are You.
I kneel before You.
Time is now immeasurable.
I realize that I am linked with countless souls
who experience Your glory.

The cluttered moments that were formerly in me
drift away as an knowledge of You comes
without explanation.

I remain with You longer than I had planned to stay.
Now it is Your deep strength
that gives me a peace and sets me free.
I experience a temporal paradise
designed to be eternal.
I glimpse Your beauty
without knowing from where You came.
I trust You and yet I draw back
knowing that I am not really ready
to fully experience You.
Too much has to happen within me.
I need to change.

Without You I am nothing
and with You my nothingness disappears.
Still, I want to become nothing in You.

Changing by the second
I am on my way away from You.
And yet I am never really away from You
for then I would cease to be.
Your gift of time keeps me
from being completely present in You
until I am called home.

It is Your mercy that calls me
only when the time is right.

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Come Again (prayer before receiving the Eucharist)

You could never force anyone
to love You.
You let them walk their way
when they heard they must
eat Your Body
and drink Your blood.
It is not a characteristic of Your Divinity
to force anyone.
You spoke only what the Father
had told You to say.

You were kind to their dreams.
You respected their diversity
but You inspired their unity.
You avoided even the beginnings
of evil.
You never had a prejudice,
complaining only of the hypocrisy
of the religious.
Men listened to You
because they saw the way You lived.

Savior, come again into my world.
Your flesh is still real food
and Your blood is still real drink.

Fill me with Your Presence.
I need the food that only You can give.

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Prayer for Grace

Grace, pure and existing from all eternity
and meant to change us,
make me into His love Divine.
Come to me with all of your passion
and intensity.
Burn in me and make me useful.

Transform me so completely
that the King of Grace may use me.
Help me to give myself away
all the way to paradise
so that before I know it
I will be totally free.
Come grace, with your Lord Jesus
and make me His alone.

A Prayer of Thanks for Salvation

Jesus,
You drew upon yourself
the just condemnation
and the consequences of our sin,
by letting Your mercy form compassion
in Your suffering for us.

We were so completely slaves of sin
that we deserved to be delivered over to evil.
But You were always there waiting,
waiting for our love.

Starve our doubts.

The human heart cannot comprehend in Your longing,
a love that made Your birth possible.

Your ways are not ours.
We are not free from concupiscence
and our hearts like Augustine’s are searching
and restless.

Return us to simplicity of existing only for You
by being conformed to such a state of abandonment
that the fruits of our fall
may yield to Your unconditional love.

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The movement of the soul

to the nearness of You

prompts my heart to sing of Your glory.

You alone compel me to rest in You

without an inner thought.

I willingly empty myself

so that You may fill me.

Prayer of a Servant

Lord, You chase after those who flee from You
and You flee from those who chase after You.
You test the just.
I ask You to dispose me
and to prepare me from within.
You came into the world to die and rise.
Fleeing from Your plans will never help me
to understand my role in salvation
nor will it help me to be understood.
Remind me that it’s going to take
many martyrs to cleanse the culture of death.
Make me ready for You.
Help me to understand
that You are more intimate to me
than my very self.

You are the key to understanding
the meaning of love.
Teach me that to follow You leads to eternal life
and that there is no real love without You.

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The Treasure (on fatherhood)

She quiets when I pick her up

means no distraction to keep us awake.
Perhaps there was hour for falling asleep
but I have forgotten it.
We vaguely remember there being an ending to a day!

Late nights no longer hold us captive
because there are better things to do.
A change in vocation
has led to a correction in attitude.
Feedings and the staying of young fears
fill our evenings.
Our time is now given over
to our sanctification
by loving this little girl.

The tears glistening off her cheek
bring out the Christ in me.
My little lady reaches out to me
and smiles
as I try to put her to bed.

Who could ask for a better life?

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Lord of the Sabbath

You finished Your work then rested.
You sanctified and blessed the days
with Your strength and Your rhythm.
You inspired even the lights of the heavens
to obey You.

We too must remain faithful.
To help us do this,
You give us Your Sabbath.
You must always be remembered.
It is always the Sabbath,

a day of solemn rest,
sacred to the You
which calls us to worship.

The Sabbath is an interpretation,
a sign of Your unalterable covenant
that recalls the Resurrection.
It was made for man.
but it is set apart for
Your praise and honor.

If You rested, then we too should rest.
Always be our Lord of the Sabbath.
Revitalize us in Your joy.

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The Conception of the Savior

In the silence of God You came to me.
You were completely still, yet stirring,

as You entered my life.
The commanding whispers of my heart

drew me near.

Then the Father opened my spirit to say yes

to Your birth.

Rejoice heavenly powers!
Sing choirs of angels!
This child is the beauty of God

physically present in the world.

Expressing the inexpressible

Jesus comes into my life

with my single yes.

My Daughter Kate

“Our loss of time is an indication of the Eternal that is imprinted on our hearts”.
The eloquence of your words often betrays your quiet depth.
Your soul is very beautiful.

You were a faithful mother three times before you were twenty-eight. Sleep deprivation is now your chosen way of life! Your children love their Mommy very much!

You trust your husband as if he was your other self and you support him through his difficult times.
Proverbs said that virtuous women should be prized. You are a virtuous woman.

It’s been said that a good sense of humor is often a sign of a sound spirituality. You’re terribly funny! Your sense of humor will make the years of your marriage fly by.

You are your husband’s soul mate in every way and without question were made by God to accompany him through life.

Some people would have become bitter at God at their sister’s death.
Your loss only conformed you more into Jesus.

I never could have picked for my stepson a wife as exceptional as you.

How was I to know that someday my stepson would marry a woman who really would become my daughter?

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Prayer to the Artist of All Souls

We are meant to be an expression of Your beauty.
Prepare us for seeing You in all of your splendor.
All other pleasures cannot compete with You.
All else is but a memory of You and is incomplete.
There is no more beautiful way of life than Yours
who is life itself.

We are an original image of the Master Artist,
the uncreated creator.
The canvas of my heart awaits Your brushstroke.
Paint out your desires for me in my life.
Use any or all of the colors You desire.
Be the artist of all souls!

The clay of my spirit longs for You to form it.
Teach me to be molded according to Your will.

Cut the jewel of this existence for its intended beauty
and set me free from this roughly made setting.

I am Yours and Yours I wish to be, both now and forever.

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A Farewell to John Paul the Great

From the beginning, the plan of bringing to the world
the message of Divine Mercy was a special task for you.
With the Mother of Divine Mercy as your special patron
you were confident that there was no way you could fail!

Holy Father, like the Lord Jesus, pain has met her match in you.
By believing in you we came to hope again and by loving you
we learned how loving a gentle father could be.
You showed us how to be the Bride of the Incarnate Word.
Because of your courage we could no longer be afraid.

Your life was the great Luminous Mystery of Christ.
Fighting the battle that was your personal Calvary

you taught us to find Love.
You loved consistently

and then you saw the face of Love Himself.
Now you have successfully completed your earthly journey.

You led the ultimate life; the only real life
by living totally outside of self.
You animated the rest of us by your example.
You were one in hope and service to the Church
and filled others with joy along the way.
You gave your unreserved affection to us
by letting us see how to live, suffer and die for Christ.

Thank you for leading us closer to Jesus.

You are the one best friend that many of us
would never personally meet in this life.

We will miss you
and always love you.

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New Saint

“Vere papa mortuus est”. “In truth the pope is dead”.
It was a gesture that those in the seat of Peter
before you also knew.

You were gone
but now you would more completely live,
your warrior body no longer tying you down
to earthly wounds.

Death would not stop you.

“Sanguis martyrum – semen christianorum”
“Blood of the martyrs – seeds of Christians”:
your white martyrs’ death
would not go unnoticed by the crowds.

“Santo Subito” –
“Immediate Sainthood”, read the banners.

His homily interrupted,
even your blessed German Cardinal choked
with emotion.

Both the faithful and the faithless
filled the square and understood.
Humanity lost and dominated
by the power of fear and sin
would experience your smile.

Heaven had welcomed a new saint.

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Plentiful Redemption (on the death of John Paul II)

Despite your suffering you were serene.
Egoism in you played no part.

“Totus Tuus ego sum.”
Victory, when it comes,
will be a victory through Mary.
Completely in the hands of your Mother,
concelebrating Mass from your bed,
you prayed the Stations of the Cross
and bid your fellow soldiers farewell.

“Don’t weep for me. I am happy
and you should be too.
Let us pray together with joy”.
The risen Lord offers reconciliation
and hope for one who chose to lead
so pious a life.

With the message of Divine Mercy
spread worldwide, you left us
on the vigil celebrating mercy.
“Apud Dominum misericordia

et copiosa apud Eum redemptio”.
“With the Lord there is mercy,
and with Him plentiful redemption.”

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King of Night and Day

King of night and day, find me faithful.
Fill my heart till it overflows.
Help me to look beyond today to the eternal.
Change me this very day.
All must be ordered by surrendering each hour.
Make me Your lover in every way.

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Prayer for My Students’ Faith

If they could see Your splendor,
and I would not get in the way
Your beauty would touch them.
If they could see
the way I presently see
they would not resist You.
Then they would want to know
who and what Love really is.

The faith that has been entrusted to us
is so lovely, so complete.
I pray for them and their faith.

May no one mislead them
or give them a faulty substitute
for the Gospel.
May no one ever teach them
that love is anything less
then being one with Your will.

+

The Elder Brother in the Faith

You were adoring Him on your knees

before I was born.
Then into the unknown of religious life,

you spread your cherished faith.

Irish and proud in the best way

with a brother priest as an example,
your parent’s virtue would ready your heart.

The world would change
and so would your Church
but as Christ’s army would shrink
you would stand strong.

Believing in unbelievable times
you would never deny your holy faith.

With steely resolve,
your songs and laughter
would take care of the tough times
with dignified simplicity.

To have a faith as rich as yours

is the goal of my life.
Your love for Jesus

is a beautiful example for my soul.

If we don’t always agree it isn’t important.
In Paradise our type of differences won’t matter,
then only our love for Christ will remain.

As a brother in the Lord I look to you

for wisdom and you never fail me.
If only all friends could be so sincere.

I love you like the older brother

I’ve never had
because you’ve shown me what a man of God

is meant to be.

+

Eternal Love (on a priestly vocation)

He entered the religious life largely opposed.
“Won’t you be lonely?”, his parents asked him.
They were at their crossroads,
and faith would lead one of them
in a much different direction.

There would be no looking back for him
and little loneliness.
There was too much work to do
and too many people to serve.

The religious life had its perils
but it was the life chosen for him
and he had said yes.
He would follow his path with joy.

He knew who he was.
He understood why he was born.
The fight he fought was worth fighting
and his heart would not settle
for anything less
than real and Eternal Love.

Dark, Dark, Night (for John of the Cross)

My Beloved,
You are a God who hides.
Over and over I look for You and You’re not there.
Is there no end to this desire?
The world and all that is in it no longer appeal to me.
Where are You?

It is You who create this hunger in me.
Don’t stay away.
I can’t stand this emptiness.
My head and heart are at war
fighting,
fighting to know that I am still with You.
Will I wander through life like this

wanting You
and not knowing where You are?
Will you never make Yourself known to me again?

Where is this taste of heaven that I’ve come to know?
Why can’t I find You?
Why are You staying away?

I know that in this very place somewhere
within time and eternity
You are still with me.
You still exist in all of Your fullness
through this dark, dark, night.

+

To Listen

Private moments that aren’t really private:

the two of us together again.

If my prayer has become a monologue

it’s because I’ve failed to listen.
I’ve spent too much time

in the busyness of life

that I forgotten You.

You speak and I hear You.
You ask me to be still

and wait for Your voice.

And it’s good to listen.

+

Prayer To Know the Real Love of Christ

An intricate part of an intricate plan,

You have made us for your reasons.
You allow joys to shape our hearts

as well as sorrow.

You sculpt from nothing our beings

with more care than is imaginable.
You make the plain and simple life

a full life.

You give us real love that is found

only by being completely

in love with You.
Help me to find Your real love

in everything I do
and to be fully present to You

at Your sacrament of the altar.

+

Eyes of Love

Do not let any barrier or obstacle

stand in your way.
Be fully devoted to the task

I have given to you.
You can never say that you loved Me

and then say you stopped loving Me.
If you love Me and then try to stop loving Me

that will tear you apart.

Surround yourself with people who love Me.
Speak about Me then let the Holy Spirit do His work.
The greatest gift that You can give Me is your heart.
Give me your heart.

Go before Me in the Eucharist to be renewed and changed.
Everything that is started in Me will find its purpose in you.
Without Me life makes no sense.

You are beautiful to me in My eyes of love.

+

Greater Love

I am afraid of what loving You completely

may mean.
You deserve the best
and not a half-hearted commitment.
Can death to self be a pointless death
when you die for love?

All love must be put into action.
Is this a sin to wait?
Am I really ready?
Is this the Higher love?

The play of life can’t be
all about me.

Give me Your Greater love.

You say that real love transforms
a soul into the best that one can be.
I know that without suffering
I can never be transformed.

I beg You to give me Your Greater love.

Never Captured

In all fairness I warned you
about My beauty.
I knew that it would be too much
for you to take in.
To be in love with Me means
more than going through the motions.

I am the center of everything.
I am the common bond
that’s often broken
but always remains.

Like the first love of your youth
you will always see Me

with tenderness.
I am pure joy
that can be experienced
but never fully captured.

+

Forever Love

You are Beauty itself.
Nature’s miracles have helped
make firm my beliefs
but it is You
who have made Yourself known.

Only You see the real beauty in me
for the beauty which You see is
really only that which is You.
Your more perfect charity,
increases the intimacy
of our union.

Let Your love transform me
into who You want me to be.

Lord,
like the saints before me
I believe that I may understand.
Help me to understand
so that I may believe.
There is no going back.
I choose to be Your forever love.

+

If a person is alone

let him come to Me.

Let him learn to pray unceasingly.

I too loved to be alone

but I always found the time to pray.

I have never found a person

who could not use Me as a friend.

Constantly desire to lift others.

You will never be lonely.

If you are disappointed

turn to Me.

The heart is too necessary

to remain wounded.

It is only when you forget

yourself that you truly begin

to know Me.

Live your faith

and change the world.

You are born to believe

and not to despair.

Be full of personal integrity

and I will fill You with my Divinity.

+

A Life in Love with You

Peace comes with complete stillness.
Is it too small a task for me to be still?
No, it is Your will that I be still

and wait for You.

The galaxies are seemingly endless

but they are not.
Only You are without limit.
And yet You wait for me.

Share with me the plans

that You have made!

You are like the unspoken promise

of a first kiss.

You are real, vivid and complete,

yet not yet finished.
I want this kiss of love

that I have for You to be real.
I never want it never to be finished.

This magnificent obsession
that keeps me chasing after You
must never end.
In a world with little love
I have found You,
a love stronger than death.

Someday You and I will celebrate
all life’s mysteries together.
Until then I’ll just be happy
with a life in love with You.

+

Eternal Hope

You are Eternal hope.

Life without You would not be worth living.
The world would be an empty place
searching for meaning.
When You became flesh

You changed the world.
Now You shower Your mercy on us

from age to age.

By the promise of the Eucharist,
I become You.
I should cherish what this means,

to be truly You for others.

Without the heart

there is no life in the body.
Without the Eucharist

there is no life in our Church.
The world loses its soul.

The darkness that comes is barren and bitter
and gives rise to despair.

But You are eternal hope.

Always be the Light of the World.

+

Prayer to Mary

Mary, my Mother,

what do you ask of me?
You ask nothing less than

a total consecration to Him

who made you.
You are a mother to me

in the order of grace

and one who was given to me

from the cross.
Be an intimate part of everything

that makes up my interior life.
Keep me always close to Jesus.

+

Gift to Mary

Mary,
after Jesus no one has done

more for me than you.
What special thing can I give you?

Your Son is your most special gift.

It is the way of all mothers
to want the best for their children.

I know that you now call me your child.
Accept the present that I make of myself.
I give my heart an open gift to you.

Bring me closer to Jesus.

+

Cor ad Cor Loquitur

“We speak a language that we both understand.”

When heart speaks to heart
are no secret doubts
and there are no hidden agendas;
there are only two souls acting as one.

When heart speaks to heart
there is an inner knowledge
that goes beyond the visible
and into the inner depths.

Angels in much splendor
understand these silent words
as do those on earth
who are meant to hear them.

This language of the heart grows
and peers into the memory
before the time those who love

knew each other.
Lovers recognize in the unspoken
the gentle moments
that no one else is meant to share.

Prayers are offered in silent

and reverent meditation,
voices are heard

without the least trepidation,
visions of one’s future are seen

without negation,
when heart speaks to heart.

+

The Life of Grace

The plan and mystery of God

is that You reveal Yourself.
You mean to spread Your peace eternally.
How dynamic is Your life of grace!

Your life, Lord, is a mystery
and there is infinitely more to discover
once we realize that we don’t control it all.

The gift of faith can never be understood
for it comes only by Your power.
We are powerless without Your grace.

Once we accept this gift
our life cannot be the same.
Our life is then destined
to become Your life.

+

Prayer of the Christian Artist

Paint will chip, colors will fade
but nothing can erase the beauty
of You.
All art is but a dim reflection
and a notion that we too are creators
with the Divine.
There is never too much too surrender
in this passion.

I willfully sacrifice my life
to be Your creative work.

+

The Death of John Paul II

I can’t forget your presence in my life
and the invaluable impression that you made.
When I see a picture of you
I remember your unconquerable spirit

and how your great quest for holiness
brought us closer to Jesus.

Now that you’re gone

your prayers will continue to help us.
On earth only your writings

and photos remain.

Calmly praying your Liturgy of the Hours
or lifting high a Monstrance,
pictures of you

make your presence
vivid to me.
I look at you

and I see the love of Christ.

Somehow I still mourn for you.

It takes time to put my feelings in order.
It takes faith to remember

that you’re in the best place.

+

When All the Heroes Fall

When all the heroes fall
they’ll be one who will stand.
No fault in Him is found,
not a step of His unplanned.

When all the heroes fall,
His face will be most calm.
His heart will be most peaceful,
His brokenness our balm.

Priests and politicians,
rich and poor alike,
all will be found lacking
in His gentle light.

When all the heroes fall,
we’ll never be alone;
He’ll be the foundation
and our cornerstone.

When all the heroes fall,
He’ll never be at rest.
He’ll be standing at the end
for He alone served best.

+

Most Real

There is no love that is ever wasted.
There is no one who ever loves alone.
Your love is not an abstraction.
You are the Most Real.
Jesus, You want to make the simple-minded
wise.
Make me wise.
True joy, true greatness is found
only in Your life of grace.

May Your grace make my love real for You.

+

Only in You

A lifetime of preparation still doesn’t make it simpler.
The harder we hold on to children, the more they fight to leave.
The challenge is always doing enough and not too much.

We teach them how to walk and then to feel and think.
This still doesn’t make them wise or holy.

Watching them make mistakes
and trying not to tell them what to do.
Leaving them enough space
and finally letting them have their own space.

Only in You is it easy to be a parent.

+

To You

It’s never the same when two meet
and fall in love.
I must treasure this gift of love
that is given to me.
I have fallen in love with You.

Where two hearts were once separate
now I wish for only one Heart to remain.

When you fall in love
with the author of Love
who is Love Himself
can there be an end to love?
Could You who are limitless
put a limit on Yourself?

I have found my Lover
and I must follow.
The remainder of my life
belongs only to You.

+

Morning Prayer

Father,
now that I’ve come to know You
I want You more and more.
You are my hope and my desire.
You are calling me by name.
I will awaken my spirit to Your call.

+

so that You might do extraordinary things.

Bread is ordinary, as are our lives.

Virtue, commitment, loyalty, dedication

and hard work are ordinary things.

Yet it is these things that You allow to transform us.

Most often You work in ways we least expect.

We need not be anyone else

than who You made us to be.

The educated, the rich, the poor the ignorant,

we all have infinite value in Your eyes.

We all have a place in Your plan.

We are ordinary people in extraordinary times

that simply choose to follow You

with our whole heart.

+

On the Real Love of Christ

You wait for me.

Whatever I can do to bring me closer to You
I will do.
Whatever I can say to be more a part of Your life
I will say.
I am confident that You will bring it to completeness.

I want only to live for the real love of You.

+

Franciscan Epitaph

+

Morning Light

while the rest of the house sleeps.

Soon I’ll be at work
and You will be with me
through the mumbled prayers
of the Rosary that starts this day.

Little ones were quiet when I walked
from the bedroom.
My wife sleeps peacefully
knowing that I’ll be home at the regular hour.

Before my leaving I prayed once again
to Thérèse.
Her prayers will keep me close to You
when my heart starts to stray.

There’ll be no noise in my soul
when I approach Your altar.
There is plenty of time to prepare
to greet You if I will it.
Help me to come to You
and let everything else go.

+

Never Alone

+

Prayer for Hope

+

Never Mere Words

My Beloved,
I beg You to never cease to teach me.

I beg You to never cease to love me.

I beg You to never cease to show me
how to suffer.

A good death is to offer
our suffering to You.
That type of death is like
Your death on Calvary;
it is selfless.

When we suffer in union with You,
we resemble You most on Your cross.

You are that perfect love,
wrapped in endless mystery.
You are God’s Word
but You do not choose mere words
to capture my heart.

Your love is never mere words.

You are my reason to be.
You are my reason for love.
Never let my love for You become
mere words.

+

The King’s Wish

+

Prayer for Conversions

+

No Longer Afraid

Who are You Jesus?
I have not seen You
but it is in You
that I have placed
all of my trust.

You are the lover of souls
and the healer of hearts.
I can only be truly satisfied
by loving You.
Beyond anyone or anything
I want to love You.

Time is given to me as a gift.
I want to give this gift
to those in need.

You give an inner knowledge of life
to anyone who would seek it.
The solitude you invite us to accept

is not one of cold indifference
but a journey into the heart of things.

May I always use my time
to enter into Your heart.

+

John 6 (they walked away)

To be astonished by You
is such a beautiful gift.
However, some turned
and walked away.

In their foolishness they opposed You.
But You didn’t waste time on those
who refused to be believe.

Gentle eyes, stalwart spirit,
You spoke to them.

You were direct
when they wanted ambiguity.
You were outspoken
when the vagueness of silence
was preferred.

A endless search made their journey
more important than their destination.
Searching for the truth
they were blind in the face the Truth.

A squandered, purposeless life
is what awaits those who leave You.
To go in a different direction,
leads to destruction.

The Bread of life remains at the table
with a banquet to follow.

Many are called but few are chosen.

+

Prayer Request

+

Prayer at the End of the Day

Lord, You make me happy
when others try my patience.
You are always there
when others turn away.
There are things that I wish
I would have done today
and there are things
that I wish I hadn’t done.

Lord, I’m tired,
but I’ll never be tired
of loving You.

+

The Sacred Heart

Love, it is all a return to You.
We come from You and we die
return to You.
You are our origin and our destiny.
You are our life.

Love spotless and pure,
Love without a beginning and without an end,
will You ever stop drawing me?
How can I help but love You
when You are Love itself?
Love, love endless love,
draw me ever into your Sacred heart.

+

Meditation Before Mass

Jesus, I have often wondered
how it is that many stay in Your Church
and yet they really leave.
But You have chosen to leave us

and yet You really stay with us
through the scriptures,
prayers, good works of others
and the sacraments.
Prepare me for worshipping You
by realizing your Eucharistic presence.
I need to be present to You
and not harden my heart.

+

Mother of Love

Her intimacy with her Son
cannot be fathomed.
She is the most godly type of woman
chosen by God Himself
to be His Mother.
She never stops protecting or guiding;
she simply is always there.

Her contribution touches the heart of God
by being humble in ways
words can not describe.

The special things that I do for Jesus
are entrusted to her and blessed.
She wraps my timidity
with her courage.
She prays for me better
than my best friend.

Mary, You are the Mother of Love.

+

Song of Faith

if I sing Your praise
with compassion.
Keeping silent when the world
needs to hear You
is an act of arrogance.

Obedience is always
better than sacrifice.
This gift of a person’s being,
a life on fire
is what is most pleasing to You.

I will be your willing servant.
But I cannot presume to know You
if I’m not spending time
on my knees.

+

Such is the universal law:
God comes to us when we least expect Him.

+

The Gift of Prayer

I have said
that have been forgotten.

I do not know how much
I am helping others on this journey
but I believe that You are always there
listening to me and guiding it.
Thank You Father for the gift of prayer.

To Be Made Worthy

I pray for those
who do not understand You.
I ask You to open their hearts.
To be devoted to You
and to love each other
is the most real goal
worthy of pursuing in this life.

I pray that I might be made worthy.

remember me in Your compassion.

By submitting to temptation,
You wanted to show us
that we should not be afraid.
You did this to help us understand
our own weakness,
and the necessity of grace
to prevent us from sinning.

I have been shown the way to the You.
I will not be afraid.
I will take refuge in the arms
of mercy.
I want to stand up to my test
by the knowledge of Your tender love
and mercy.
I have discovered that those who come
to know You in this way,
may live in a state of being
continually converted.

Accept me and my heart.
You are my ardent desire.

+

Morning Prayer of Thanks

Good morning Lord!

I want to love and obey You.

I thank You for all of the people

who I had contact with yesterday.

Bless them and give them Your Holy Spirit.

May a spirit of understanding and trust

develop within the framework

of the world that you entrust to me.

I am so grateful to You

that even if I made mistakes yesterday,

I still have another day to grow through them.

Time is short but long enough

to do the things You have meant for me to do.

I thank You for my wife,

my children and my students.

I thank you for giving me a place

where I can love.

I pray for all of those who feel unloved.

Help them no matter how difficult

it may be for them today.

Give them love.

Let them not feel alone.

May those who are seeking peace

find You who are the King of Peace.

+

Prayer for those Injured by Abortion

We must not be mislead.
We must beware of anyone who lacks compassion.
The unborn we must leave to the providence of God.
You love all.
You love both the parents and their children.

You love the repentant heart.
Many parents of aborted children
now love their children and mourn them.

Jesus, You command us not to judge.
Our problem is not
that we do not know the Scriptures
but we refuse to live them.
Forgiveness is always granted
to the ignorant and the repentant.
Forgiveness is a commandment of the faith.
Who knows how much good
may come from one forgiven soul?

I pray for these parents and their children
and I pray for our nation.
We let this happen.
We do not pray.
We should always expect the unexpected.

May abortion quickly cease
and may all injured by abortion,
male and female,
born and unborn
know Your peace.

+

Prayer of Thanks

There is no purpose in life
greater than loving and serving You.

+

Prayer to Become Love

+

Prayer to be a Servant

In your hands is my destiny.
You are my refuge.
You are my God.
Save me, O Lord, in your kindness.

When I pray I often do not know what I am asking.
You came not to be served but to serve.
I cannot serve unless I unite myself
with Your Passion and Your Death.

Service implies martyrdom,
and martyrdom means first death to self.
Imitation of You on the cross

is the goal of this divine calling.

You came into the world
to save and not to judge,
to serve and not to be served.
Aid me in rendering a loving service
to the point of giving my life for others.

+

Prayer to Love the Church

You, alone probe the mind
and test the heart.
You reward us
according to our deeds.

Your judgment is rendered on
our conduct.

Pure love is more valuable to You
than anything else.
Earthly possessions are short-lived
and death marks their end.
You demand an openness to our

brothers and sisters in need.
At the end of our life,
we shall be judged on love.

Let me never to put anything
ahead of loving You
and Your family, the Church.

+

Joseph and the Cistern

Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons.
Yahweh loved Jesus best of all His sons.
When his brothers saw how their father loved Joseph
they hated him.
When humanity saw how their Father loved Jesus
they hated Him.
Joseph was thought to be dead yet gave his brothers life.
Jesus died and by His death gave humanity new life.

Even when one seeks to disobey divine will,
it is fulfilled.
They threw Joseph into the cistern,
which was empty and dry.
Is not my being like that cistern?
I am empty and dry,
waiting for You to fill me.

+

The Cornerstone

I was created to be Your servant
but the care of Your flock
is meant to be given
only to those
who seek You with a sincere heart.
My ambition and desire for praise
blinds me.
I discover only through bitter experiences
that the stones that the builders reject
will become Your cornerstones.
With You we must be rejected.
It is Your way.
It is only the humble
who will be exalted.

With You as that cornerstone
the growth and life of the Church
is assured.
I cannot replace You.
You alone are God.

All are called to suffer
and die to self.
It is the way of the cross
that You ask us to embrace.
Even in events which seem negative,
You are guiding everything that happens
towards good, towards salvation.
Be that cornerstone in my heart
that builds on a grace-filled life.

+

The Lord of All Hearts

Your universe is your vineyard.
You have spared no effort to cultivate it.

The malicious purposes of the tenants
are madness.
We assume too often
that we are the Master builder
but we are only unworthy servants.

I give You permission to change me.

Master,
be the Lord of our hearts
and build again and again.

Dwell within me
and change me
until I no longer live
but You live within me.

+

Peace Itself

(meditation on Micah 7)

Shepherd your people
in the midst of Carmel.
Take us aside
to see Your beauty again.
Show us Your wonder.
We need to see Your face
and hear Your voice.

Who is there like you?
You remove our guilt
and pardons us.
You make us new.
You are kind and merciful.
You do not always chide,

and remember Your anger.

As far as the east is from the west,

You put our transgressions from us.

You are peace itself

+

Prayer to Christ the Teacher

Lord, everything about You
was meant to teach us,
even Your silences.
You teach the greatest lessons
in the silence of Your Cross.

I want to keep my good deeds silent.
I want only You to know my good deeds.

You have done everything possible
to make Yourself known.
It is only my blind pride
that keeps You from me.
Without Your tender mercy
I would be lost.

I don’t want my vanity to control
how I respond to Your love.
I want to serve You in secret
and in prayer that comes from the heart.

You came to teach the Truth.
You are the Teacher who reveals
God to man and man to himself.
Teach me, dear Jesus.

+

Prayer for Christian Unity

+

Prayer for Divine Provision

The greatest of fools forgets who he is before You.

I always want to remember that I belong to You

before I belong to anyone else.

I am totally dependant on You to be faithful,

loving, kind and true.

I need You.

Every good gift, every family member

and all of my friends I would not have

without Your love.

There are many who are searching for You

and are extremely lonely.

I pray for them dear Jesus

and I ask You to come into their hearts

and to provide for them.

I want everyone to have a relationship

and a love that is as real as the one

that only You can provide.

+

Meditation on Mercy

You are mercy!
I thank for being this way for me,
for not dealing with me
the way my actions deserve.
I want to be like You.
You can never be outdone
in kindness.
I want to be merciful.

There is a reward for mercy.
Whatever I give in this life,
You will far exceed in eternity.
I want to be this way
but it is much easier to judge.

What right do I have to judge others?
You are very plain in explaining how I need to be.
You advise me to be merciful.
I must be compassionate towards
others because they belong to You.

Help me to put others first.
I want to be You for them.
I want to be holy mercy.

+

Personal Call to Conversion

after you.

Whoever is wise
let him know My ways.
Forgiveness is offered
generously.
The words of my prophets
are a call to conversion.

This is a golden age of love between
Me and My people.
I am The Beloved who is love,
who loves only love and
faithfulness.

Do not resist My love.
Can you stop loving the one who
is Love in person?

To love with all the heart, and
with all the understanding,
and with all the strength,
and to love
one’s neighbor as oneself,
is the greatest commandment.

+

In Gratitude for Christian Baptism

I cherish the fact
that You live in me.
You can reign in my heart
if I but let You.
I give You my soul
so that Your passion
may burn through it.
I can see the world in the light of reverence
because of Your passion.
To know and believe
I have been given an awareness

of Your Mystical presence.

With this knowledge
the chains of previous experiences
will not hold the present bound.
The Christian faith
has a value without limit.
It is the pearl of inestimable worth.

Angels themselves have longed to see
what I see in Your Church.
In this belief even the shadows of life
become radiant with conviction
and a cause for joy.

Father,
Let all the chosen come to You!
Let us glow in our baptismal inheritance.
Bring us to our knees.
You are my Lover and King Divine.
Please, flower in my soul.

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Meditation on the Annunciation

I too want to find favor with God.
I too want the Lord to be always with me.
I will also be His handmaid.

Overshadow me Holy Spirit.
Conceive the love of God within me.
nothing is impossible with You.

“Ecce venio”, here I am, ready;
I accept everything
and in all things I too submit to Your will.

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On Lent

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Meditation on John 5:17-30

Work in me a little longer Savior.
Work in me until Your work is done.
There is time for us to grow closer,
there is time for us to become One.

Make of me Your useful vessel,
to be what You want me to be.
I am Yours and not another’s.
I follow Your call to my destiny.

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“Bless me Father, for I have sinned”.
It is a request I have made countless times before.
I kneel to properly compose myself to confess.
Your priest welcomes me in Your name.

The psychology of a man standing
in Your place makes perfect sense.
Because we sin through our senses
it is Divine Mercy that allows us
to be forgiven through them.

The physical world mirrors
the spiritual reality.
The Apostles were no different.
Jesus chooses the flesh of a fallen man
to heal through once again.

How is it possible to believe
that a sign of love can be so effective?
Would it not be enough to confess
to You alone?

It is Your Mercy that has made this
so private a sacrament.
And it is Your Mercy
that gives me the freedom
and confidence

Help us to see the seriousness of this
and repent.

You combine in Your person
suffering and victory
with an appearance so marred,
that many are startled.
But You are the Author of Life.

Prayer before the Reception of the Eucharist

Lord,
what wondrous love there is in the Eucharist.
We can never unveil all of the Mystery.
God who has become man
comes to us again.
He wants to physically become one with us.
There is a great secret in this
as there are always great secrets
with true lovers.
You choose the physical means
to give birth the spiritual.

Come again my Master.
I do not tire of being one with You.
I will surrender to Your call
and receive You within me.

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because of her gender.
It was woman’s talk.
And yet it was a woman
who said ‘yes’ to God
and gave Him flesh.
“Blessed are those who have not seen
and yet believe”.

Like the two women named Mary,
the Church makes us all
partakers in redemption,

but we must first will
to believe.
We must believe in order
to understand.
We must act.
It is His will for us is to be
an instrument of salvation
for others.

In the Church there is diversity of people
but unity of mission.
Christ has entrusted the office of
teaching, sanctifying
and governing to us all.
He entrusts His message first
to the hearts of these two women.

The word of the living God is
the supreme eloquence of truth.
It carries the authority of God.
We must bear witness to it.
We must obey Him rather than men
accepting with complete conviction
that His truth is real.

But in Christ there is often a message
in the choice of the messenger.

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On the Paschal Mystery

Who am I to complain of suffering?

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Divine Mercy in her Soul

Her mercy drew Mercy Himself down from heaven.
There was no way He wished to escape her love.
So exquisite was this Polish daughter
that He would seek to reform a world
with her humility and prayer.
Her limited education did not stop her.
She espoused wisdom.
The King had given her His heart.

She would hear Him say,
“Let no soul fear to draw near to Me.
I want to grant complete forgiveness.”

A Polish son would recognize this handmaid
and a feast would emerge from the very depths
of Christ’s heart.
An image would be solemnly blessed
so every soul might know
how much this God still loves us.

He wants the world to believe
that His tender mercy is available,
and that His mercy triumphs over His justice.
Our Beloved is an unimaginable refuge for all,
especially for the poorest of sinners.

He wills to grant complete pardon!
Ocean of graces pour out of His heart!

No mind can fathom Him
so we must approach Him in reverential dignity.
It is no ordinary lover that we worship.
He has revealed that everything
has come forth from His tender mercy.

Mankind will have no peace
until it turns to Him.

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Prayer to Obtain Mercy

and I am grateful.
I will fear nothing because of Your mercy.

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Faith and Suffering

of our spiritual union.

It is a grace.

The Cross is a mystery
because when we follow Jesus,
there is always tremendous suffering.
Suffering is a prerequisite of redemption.
We encounter it in our own life
and in the life of others
because our destiny is to become
another Christ.

There is no growth of faith in Christ
without suffering.

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Sign and Symbol

a tremendous gulf between my finiteness
and His infinitude,
between my sin and His purity.

When I enter into myself
and my soul is alone with God
it is the Cross that reminds me
of His glory.
The Cross says that
dying is more than the end of life,
that dying is the all decisive moment
that provides us with our choice
of heaven or hell.
It is the ultimate act of finality.

In reverencing the Cross
we reverence also the holiness
of our own death and resurrection.

Nothing compares to the beauty of the cross.

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On the Loss of Karen

My death may come unexpectedly,
but I don’t want it to come to me
without me being prepared.

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Your Heart

All Possible Abandonment

I have slipped away before.
I know the pain that running away brings.
I never want that emptiness again.
I never want to fall back into darkness.
Life without You is a living hell.

For the first time in my life I can see clearly
that I can become my true self,
the person that I was created to be.
I can go so much deeper in Your love.
I will follow this unquenchable desire
that will end in our eternal union.

I will not do this at the cost of reverence
I will not fail in my respect.
I will not forget my original calling.
I’ve had my own inward and outward experiences
that have taught me the way that I must go.

The more penetrating that Your knowledge becomes,
the more I experience Your incomprehensibility.
With this love also comes the gift
of understanding Your purpose:
You want to give wings to my soul!

The same thing is true of life and of action.
I may dwell for a moment on the phenomenon of You
or I may follow You with all possible abandonment.

I choose to follow in joy! I choose to abandon all!
I choose You and Your life of love!

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Francis of Assisi

He has taught me how to abandon myself
and now I will worship Him
without any reservation.

Like Moses, I have seen the Promised Land.
I have seen the face of God and lived.
I cannot deny that You are there.
Your love is too great for me.

I will renounce everything that I hold dear
and I will be Your disciple.
I will give up all my possessions.
With an increase in possessions,
there is often a loss of character.
I don’t want my character to decrease,
I only want it to grow.
I will rid myself of all excess
so as to be filled by You and Your love.

I will accept the challenge of this simple life.

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Triumphant Love

in spite of all challenges,
is the one God has made for you.

This is the real mystery of marriage.
It is far superior to the first love in courtship.
It awakens us to what is really important.
It stirs us to mature for our vocation.
True love is an act of total self-surrender.
It mirrors the love of Christ
for His Bride, the Church.
It is the living symbol of His love.

Every act of sacrifice is worth breaking through
to this triumphant love.

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John-Mark, Loreli and their Children)

In prayer, the light of Christ’s splendor
penetrated your communion with Him.
The indescribable gift of Jesus’ intercession
is not fully experienced
until our faith is lived to the fullest.

With faith we need to be inspired
by extraordinary mystery.
Once we recognize the Holy Spirit,
we realize that we have been called
to a great boldness
of sharing Him with others.
This is the joy of the Christian faith:
we have both a duty to confess it and proclaim it.

God is efficacious. He does what He says He will do.
He will give us the grace for the task at hand.
We must pass on our faith
and be obedient in announcing the Good News.
We must vigorously defend it.
The unique revelation of Jesus in our hearts
gives us this certain responsibility to Him.
There is no other name under Heaven but Jesus
by which we must be saved.

He will give you a wonderful gallantry of spirit,
so as to speak His name
whether it is convenient or inconvenient.

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I am not be afraid to call You by Your name
and proclaim our love.
I will never fully understand You.

My mind is far too small.

But I know that Your love is immense,

infinite and perfect.

You are the stone rejected by the builders,
the stone which keeps everything together.

Let the prayer that I offer You be sincere.
May You bring salvation to all who call
upon Your holy name.
You are the Good Shepherd.
Help me also to lay down my life for Your sheep.

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On Divorce and Annulments

is a marriage which ends in divorce.
Catholic Christians believe that Scripture
does not allow divorce.

But with mercy,
things are rarely black and white.
Christ’s mercies are never numbered.

If a valid Christian marriage
has never taken place,
then an annulment can be obtained.
The Church can issue an annulment
but one of the members

must first prove that the marriage is invalid.

This can be very painful.
If all of your life
was dedicated to a person
and they walk or run away,
it is very painful.
Betrayal is always painful.

If your spouse was an abuser,
or a drug addict,
simply did not love you,
or gave you no emotional support
it is indescribably painful
to go over these things.

Divorce is worse than death.
With death there is also an ending
and often a period of preparation
for the loss.
With divorce no amount of suffering
can prepare you for it.

Death often comes
without a person’s willing it.
With divorce it is a choice
that is often necessary
but never originally desired.

Divorce is an evil that is spreading.
It breaks the heart of all that are involved.
This is why God hates divorce:

because what it does to His people.

Father,
You instituted the sacrament of Marriage.
You never stop trying to help us make sense
of pain.
You want us to be one in You.
Make us one in You.
Help us to love one another,

regardless of the challenges,
regardless of the pain we may face.
Teach us to see You in our sufferings
and our joy.
Like Augustine,
our hearts are restless
until they rest in You.

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Love Deserves All Our Love

I want to believe that whoever believes in You
will do the works that You do.
I want to sing You a new song.
I want to speak out boldly.

Jesus, come to me in secret.
I will not be afraid.
Open the door to Your Heart
and give me the joy

that knowing You brings!
There is no denying
this gift of happiness.
I could never thank You enough
for giving me the grace to believe.
Savior,
I want all to know that
Love deserves all our love.

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Gratitude for the Cross

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Willing to Love

and do something beautiful for Him.
This is what really matters.
We must be willing to risk
everything for Him.
The purity of our purpose
determines the response
to our mission.
Everything depends on
how much we are willing to love.

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No Escape

I am free,
but I wish to be captured by You.
I do not want to be a flame
in the fire of Your passion.
I wish to be consumed.

No amount of searching

fills my desire.
It is only You who satisfy.
You, my Lover are never selfish.
You emptied Yourself totally on the Cross!

You are Truth itself.
You are Beauty in its entirety.
You are the magnificent challenge of this life.

You are not simply an emotion
which rises from my heart.
You are the reason I live.

Your enemies abound.
But even Your adversaries
must know You.
In a world that is inundated
with sadness,
You are eternal joy.

You request kindness from me for others.
This does not mean that Your love is gullible.
Your love is tempered by Your Mercy
and balanced by Your Justice.
I am not ignorant in my calling.
I know who it is I follow on this mission.
You have abandoned Yourself to me.
May Your Love never relinquish its hold.
If I lived a thousand years
I could not escape Your Love.