Into Stillness

Your Eyes Are Upon Me

lioness — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:07:01 +0000

Your eyes are upon
Your lowly servant.
I have a sense
Of being with You
This day in Paradise.
I know you are here
With me,
In the Flesh
For these holy moments,
And, by my Baptism and Confirmation,
By character and grace
In Your Holy Spirit.

Amen to all you choose
To do in me.
I am Yours.
Make me a cleansed vessel
A vessel covered in gold
Fit for Your service,
A chalice full
Of willingness.
I pray, I wait, I obey.

Holy, holy,holy Lord.

At My Death

lioness — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:55:09 +0000

At my death,
My kind and loving Jesus,
Friend and Savior of my soul ,
See again and always
My Baptism,
By and in which I entered
Into Your Divine Life,
As humble and grateful partaker,
Becoming priest, prophet, and king,
By the Victory and Resurrection
That is Yours,
And I now share.

Here, the Life giving Water
Of Your Father’s Plan
And Will for me,
Invited me into Your Death,
That I might live,
Another Christ,
By and in His Only Begotten Son,
By the Will of the Most Holy Trinity.

I will with all my heart,
“Amen”
To all you have done for me
In Your Passion and Death.

May this New Life,
That is Your embrace
Of all my life,
Nailed to the Cross,
That is Your Death
And ransom for my life,
Breathe New Life
Into my soul eternally.

At my death
Take to Yourself,
Your Own.

Sweet Presence

lioness — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:52:56 +0000

You are here.
My soul drinks
Of Your Presence.
Here is sweetness pervading,
Time with no measure,
Eternity kissing the moment,
Stillness, though fleeting.
Your touch stirs the life of me.

I want to dance,
Charged with new vigor.
I should simply gaze on You
But the power of life
Is hard to resist,
And unless You take me captive,
I’m tempted to fly.

I am the beggar,
Who finding his pockets full,
Hurries off to spend his treasure.
Teach me Lord to bask
In the sunshine of Your smile.

All Glory to You

lioness — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:43:57 +0000

My dear Jesus,
My merciful Jesus,
I rejoice in Your Presence.
Pour ever fresh graces
Into my soul,
That I may draw life From Your Life,
And that Your living Presence in me
May light my corner of the world
With Your Glory.

Robert Spencer: the Boston jihad bombings & the war on free speech – video

lioness — Thu, 09 May 2013 01:23:14 +0000

God Creator

lioness — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:32:49 +0000

God creates,
And then goes forth
Into His creation.

I come to be in Thee,
And in Love,
I make return.

God Creator

lioness — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:11:56 +0000

God creates,
And then goes forth
Into His creation.

I come to be in Thee
And in Love
I make return.

Like the Dew Fall

lioness — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:56:43 +0000

Like dew You fall upon me,
I am drenched in Your holiness,
And aglow,
Transformed by Your Light.

Your sweetness woos me,
Even as I lower my eyes,
Beholding my own wretchedness.
Fear not say You,
I yield my defenses.

Your desire for me
Inspires my desire for You,
And my being drinks in Your Presence.
Lightly You settle in me,
Warming me through and through.
In time I will look like You.

A Thought for the Day

lioness — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:24:23 +0000

It always comforts me that God knows us through and though, and knows all we have suffered, endured and also that which we have never been taught. He also knows how our experiences have shaped us or caused us to be misshapen. In the end He is the perfect judge who knows our hearts inside out. In His unfathomable mercy He still and always wants to adorn us with His attributes. For my part, I want to let Him.

On the incarnation of the Word

lioness — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:24:19 +0000

From a discourse by Saint Athanasius, bishop

On the incarnation of the Word

The Word of God, incorporeal, incorruptible and immaterial, entered our world. Yet it was not as if he had been remote from it up to that time. For there is no part of the world that was ever without his presence; together with his Father, he continually filled all things and places.

Out of his loving-kindness for us he came to us, and we see this in the way he revealed himself openly to us. Taking pity on mankind’s weakness, and moved by our corruption, he could not stand aside and see death have the mastery over us; he did not want creation to perish and his Father’s work in fashioning man to be in vain. He therefore took to himself a body, no different from our own, for he did not wish simply to be in a body or only to be seen.

If he had wanted simply to be seen, he could indeed have taken another, and nobler, body. Instead, he took our body in its reality.

Within the Virgin he built himself a temple, that is, a body; he made it his own instrument in which to dwell and to reveal himself. In this way he received from mankind a body like our own, and, since all were subject to the corruption of death, he delivered this body over to death for all, and with supreme love offered it to the Father. He did so to destroy the law of corruption passed against all men, since all died in him. The law, which had spent its force on the body of the Lord, could no longer have any power over his fellowmen. Moreover, this was the way in which the Word was to restore mankind to immortality, after it had fallen into corruption, and summon it back from death to life. He utterly destroyed the power death had against mankind—as fire consumes chaff—by means of the body he had taken and the grace of the resurrection.

This is the reason why the Word assumed a body that could die, so that this body, sharing in the Word who is above all, might satisfy death’s requirement in place of all. Because of the Word dwelling in that body, it would remain incorruptible, and all would be freed for ever from corruption by the grace of the resurrection.

In death the Word made a spotless sacrifice and oblation of the body he had taken. By dying for others, he immediately banished death for all mankind.

In this way the Word of God, who is above all, dedicated and offered his temple, the instrument that was his body, for us all, as he said, and so paid by his own death the debt that was owed. The immortal Son of God, united with all men by likeness of nature, thus fulfilled all justice in restoring mankind to immortality by the promise of the resurrection.

The corruption of death no longer holds any power over mankind, thanks to the Word, who has come to dwell among them through his one body.

Held Fast to Your Glory

lioness — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:19:50 +0000

Thank You God,
For this waking in Your arms,
Held fast by You,
Through the night,
Through all darkness,
To see yet another day,
In Your light.
Purified by Your Holiness,
May I love,
And live it in Your Way.

Fruit of the Vine

lioness — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:39:54 +0000

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Fruit grows on the branches. How important are we to The Lord. He wills to need us for a harvest of fruit. It has been said, "Without God, we cannot; but without us, God will not." (St. Augustine)

Shalom Peace

lioness — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:41:16 +0000

I am man,
Creation run amuck.
You have set me to name the animals
And govern as You, Yourself,
With angel hosts to help set the world aright
But only by Your Light.

And what have I done,
And do I do?
Taking hold of the universe
I twist it to my will,
Make laws against Your Laws
And ride wild chariots,
Only to drown in Passover’s sea.

Yet there is hope for me.
Return to claim Your own.
Invite all to Your throne.
Purge the night in fiery column.
Dayspring arise to water anew,
And lead by Mystery and cloud
In shalom peace to You.

Prayers of St. Gertrude the Great and St Mechtilde / catholictradition.org

lioness — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 01:05:52 +0000

COVENANT WITH GOD

O ALMIGHTY God, I sanctify, dedicate, and consecrate to Thee every beating of my heart, and every pulsation of my blood; and I desire to make this compact with Thee, that their every beating shall say to Thee: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; and I beseech Thee to impute this meaning to them, so that they may be before Thy Divine Majesty as the unceasing echo of that heavenly canticle, which seraphims sing without ceasing unto Thee. Amen. Amen.

MORE EXTENDED COVENANT TO BE RENEWED EVERY WEEK

The great efficacy of this covenant may be shown thus: Were a person to resolve that by every movement he made he wished to be understood to ratify and approve all the sins that are committed all over the earth, and to be held a partaker of them, it is easy to see what guilt he would thus contract. And if such an intention would have so great influence for evil, why should it not have immense force and merit for good?

O LORD God, my Creator, all my desire is before Thee, and my groaning is not hidden from Thee; but inasmuch as the necessities of this life prevent the constant application of my mind to Thy praise, I make with Thee this covenant, earnestly desiring that it may remain in force throughout this week.

Whenever I look up towards Heaven, I desire and intend to rejoice with Thee in Thine infinite perfections; that Thou art what Thou art, supremely strong and wise and loving and just.

As often as I open or close my eyes, I desire and intend to approve and concur in all the holy actions which Thine Only-begotten Son, and all the Saints in Heaven and just on earth, have ever done, or shall ever hereafter do, to Thy glory, and desire to be held a partaker in them all.

As often as I draw my breath, I offer to Thee the Life and Passion and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the merits and sufferings of all the Saints, to Thine eternal glory, for the welfare and peace of all the whole world, and in satisfaction for the sins of all men.

Whenever I sigh, I intend to detest and abhor every sin, as well my own sins as those which have ever been committed from the beginning of the world against the honour of Thy Name. Would that the slight and worthless offering of my blood might be accepted in satisfaction for them! Lastly, as often as I move my hand or my foot, so often do I cast myself with entire resignation upon Thy most holy will, desiring that Thou wouldst dispose of me in time and in eternity, according to Thine adorable good pleasure.

And, lest this fivefold covenant should be in any way made void, I seal it with the seals of Thy five most Sacred Wounds, earnestly desiring that it may have its full force with Thee, even though in any one of these actions it be not actually present to my mind.

Holy of Holies

lioness — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 23:51:41 +0000

Give me a heart
Desirous of Truth.
You, Who rent
In two the veil,
That hid Your Divinity
In the mystery
Of Flesh and Blood,
Incarnation for my salvation,
Open the Way
For me to enter in,
That loving You,
I may taste
The heavenly Bread,
And walk, henceforth,
A child, at home
In the Holy of Holies.