Author: householdoftheholyfamily

May all of us come home again,
     In holy Zion dwell,
At last made free of Eden’s sin
     Through our Emmanuel.

For Zion has in Him become
     New name for Paradise,
Restored by Him through death undone
     And raised from earthly strife.

In Zion’s streets play boys and girls,
     And Rachel no more wails,
For all grave clothes have been unfurled;
     All live beyond the pale.

His truth is only spoken here
     And lived in full each day,
As we all live beyond death’s fear
     With Jesus who’s our Way.

The life we live is His within
     Each one uniquely made;
We’re all who we have always been
     When seen without sin’s shade.

Our Father draws us each to Him—
     Through faith we understand—
We’re born again in Bethlehem,
     The gate to Zion’s land.

His never-ending glory lives
     In Zion raised on high,
And to us all He glory gives:
     Now we will never die. 

Upon the altar lives the Binding Force
That dies and rises–in His hands to hold
The universe that runs His plotted course,
Warmed by His love that never will grow cold.

We look and see amid the circling gloom
His light comes from His never-ending dawn,
Breaks forth from Calvary’s Rose o’er earth to bloom,
Proclaim that night of sin and death is gone.

Forever will in universe prevail
His light that shines from Cross on altar laid
With faith and hope and love that lift the veil
By hands of Babe born of a Virgin Maid.

His swaddling clothes reveal the love that binds
The universe—thus bound we freedom find. 

To save the world, in hearts You make
     The Saints who Your truth know;
The care of souls they do not shirk:
     Their hearts are never closed.

They live among us quietly
     As they bless all of us;
Their vision sees expectantly
     And for us all they trust.

They see the truth that we are held
     By Him in changeless hands
To pick up all of us who fell—
     Restore us to His band.

And then one day we’ll faces see
     Of those who worked and prayed
For us, and with them bend our knee
     To Love Who with us stays. 

SOLEMNITY OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL,
APOSTLES

I wake and find I’m in a sea
That salty tastes and is Blood Red
And know that drowning is by me
Who grasped for life, found death instead.

How frantically I flail away
To find salvation from my death
And finally clutch the Wood, His Way:
His Cross restores my Eden health.

As I submit to Cross’s wounds,
I’m washed in Blood that pours from Him:
Restores my salt in Church’s womb–
Rise from Her font, am free of sin. 

From slavery to His freedom borne
On Church’s Ark to Promised Land–
An Ark that by His Cross is formed
To makes us new: His glorious band. 

By finger of Your hand in nature writes
Our story that to us you will reveal,
And we, with opened eyes, receive our sight

Of heaven’s union with Your earth made right–
In Him ,by Spirit, truth in us unsealed;
By finger of Your hand in nature writes

Your love for Your creation in its night,
Shown in His nail-scarred hands, bring balm to heal;
And we, with opened eyes, receive our sight

To see that death is not our final blight,
But in its night our remedy concealed;
By finger of Your hand in nature writes

That winter’s death prepares for spring-time’s light
Where to His Cross we death of self will yield;
And we, with opened eyes, receive our sight

Of Him, as fruit of Zion’s Tree of Life;
We see Your New Creation’s Holy Meal.
By finger of Your hand in nature writes,
And we, with opened eyes, receive our sight. 

Do I think that from judgment I’m exempt,
A special case who will hear “never mind”
And be excused when I will not attempt
A virtuous life, the purpose of mankind?

Do I think from chastisement I’ll escape
For sin that violates virtues’ trodden path,
Exception be to every person’s fate
Who eats the fruit forbidden in our past?

And yet I’m given hope that is not false
By Him who died and rose, who’s at my side,
That what is wicked in me can be lost
And He will come in my heart to abide.

O Jesus, Mercy, please forget me not:
Forever with You I will cast my lot. 

So wounded is His Church that He, I Am,
Is only Bridegroom who can sanctify,
For healing She seeks comes from Bethlehem,
And with Him in His grave She seeks to lie
To rise again a pure and spotless Bride
Who will forever with her Husband live
As she in wounded side of Him abides,
And He to her His endless life will give
That two together will forever be
As She with Him gives birth to many sons
And daughters who are all allowed to see
And taste the glory His wounds for us won.
While frolicking, we dance into the dawn
And say goodbye to death–forever gone. 

The earth and starry skies made by Your hands
Will perish if You take Your breath away,
And so will we who’re made for heaven’s land
Redeemed in Christ who with us has His way.

You save us for your purpose known to You,
Revealed in step-by-step in Your good time,
And always with our heaven’s end in view
As glory in each one You will to find. 

So through it all, our hope is in Your Son
Whose glory dwells in us forever more,
As You in love complete what You’ve begun
With all creation seen as heaven’s shore.

Those starry skies and earth by You redeemed–
Reflected always heaven’s holy gleam. 

Love is not blind to Truth who God reveals
Is Jesus Christ who loves us first and last,
And from our face removes the veil conceals
Our true selves who we will be from our past.

We’re so concerned with outside of the cup,
We fail to see the beauty that’s within
Who comes to us, desires with us to sup
And make us who we always were, again.

We eat and drink from common vessels laid
On table for His Body and His Blood,
And earthen vessels, our Old Adam, fade
As His life enters us from Holy Rood.

His beauty, truth within once more are born:
We walk with Him in New Creation’s morn. 

Is happiness beyond our grasp,
     Beyond our human clutch?
Can we from our Lord dare to ask
     That our hearts may be touched?

And then we learn to open hands,
     Receive what we are giv’n;
We can then join His holy band–
     With them be formed for heav’n.

And on the road we others meet
     Who’ve also found the way—
In our hearts happiness we greet
     In every passing day.

At last we see His happiness,
     A joy unspeakable;
Our hearts in Him are meant to rest:
     In Son, Emmanuel.