householdoftheholyfamily

Mary, Our Open Door

May we see you with Juan Diego’s eyes
To gratify our sighs
For birth again from past
That we may know our Eden’s East won’t last,
As Adam New comes through the gate to us
To rescue all with you in Jesus trust.

May roses in our hearts from mantle blue
Engraved within by you
Know love in winter’s dead
When by your hand comes spring-time roses red
To warm in Eden’s light through open gate
All those who for Him in this Advent wait.

May we now listen to the words you speak
To all who for Him seek.
In you at last we find
Decanted royal purple, His new wine,
To wash us in Baptism’s stream to soar
With Him in you—for you’re our open door,

Immaculate Mary

Our human nature glorified
In Christ, Emmanuel:
In Mary’s womb Begotten hides
With her who never fell.

Now Mary’s nature sanctified
In union with her Son;
By Spirit’s breath her past is tied
To Resurrected One.

Immaculate she is conceived
In mother Anna’s womb;
In perfect heart she then receives
God’s Son—will rise from tomb,

And when He disappears above,
He draws all to His side.
To His dear Mother gives His love;
Her body there abides.

Some day we’ll all with Mary be;
We’ll stand by New Eve’s side,
For there through all eternity
Our nature glorified.

A Warrior’s Sword

His Cross becomes a warrior’s sword,
     And with it death was slain;
Both sin and death now know their Lord
     Who one of us became.

His purpose was to cut the chains
     Of sin bound us to death;
To freedom for us all proclaim–
     Restore His Eden’s health.

For sin and death infected earth
     When we in Adam fell,
And all creation needs re-birth
     To save all from death’s knell.

Now Jesus rises from the dead
     In grave Old Eden leaves;
And He is now exalted head—
     New Eden His breath breathes.

His Spirit creates new again
     And Paradise re-born;
A world forever free of sin,–
     No longer we’re forlorn.

Tree of Life

A gnarled old tree in our backyard
Reminds us of our elder years
When we our dying leaves discard,
And we God’s voice can better hear.

We see the world is meant to be
A place where we’re for heaven formed,
And we learn here to bend our knee
To Jesus–saves from Satan’s harm.

And we like tree will someday fall
To disappear into the ground;
Yet we are to our Father called
Where new life grown from old is found–

Then we will rise in garden new
In Paradise where we are saved,
Where Tree of Life grows ever new:
With family, friends we Jesus praise!

An Open Door to Dawn

Lord, let me be an open door
That You may enter others’ lives
Through me to come to spirits poor
Who need You for their living guide.

In providence You touched my life,
Gave faith for me to understand
The truth that pierces with Your light
Our darkness, covers all our land.

Lord, may I not distracted be
By clamor of this world’s demands;
May I hold fast to truth I see,
As You hold me in guiding hand.

May I point others to Your dawn,
Breaks at the point where You meet earth;
With heaven’s beams You bring Your song–
At last we find our longed-for birth.

You take us in the light that shines
From Bethlehem through Calvary’s hill
To empty tomb where You unbind
The death that all our graves had filled.

We taste Your truth in bread and wine
Transformed to give us You, His Son;
In Body, Blood for all earth’s time
We rise with You who vict’ry won.

Light in the Darkness

My darkness Jesus scatters wide
So I can see His face;
In His light see those at my side,
And each is full of grace.

For each one from His Cross receives
His love that knows no bounds,
That calls each one to Him believe
Who scatters mercy round.

His voice calls each one to repent,
Receive forgiveness now,
For each He has His own life spent–
To each with grace endows.

Forgiveness flows from risen life
In Body and His Blood;
He lives forever–brings His light
In all to darkness flood.

Our Lady

O Lady, you were crowned with heaven’s stars
Transformed from crown of thorns that your Son wore
On earth, a garland made where once before
First Lady Eve had lived with Adam–marred
God’s whole creation and with Him was barred
From Tree of Life, and we were all made poor
By death in Eden’s East, yet know there’s more
Than this–so with our ancient foe we war.
Still earth is heaven’s anteroom, ordained
To be where life begins that never ends
For man–where sin is not allowed to reign.
You welcomed God’s dear Son; again begins
Our human life without the Devil’s stain.
He’s raised with you, O Lady, without sin.

Master Weaver

You take the tattered threads of our own lives
When we surrender to Your nail-scarred hands
And weave a picture of new life You give
As You in us redeem Your eastern lands.

You all creation weave in tapestry
To make anew what we in Adam tore,
For we tried hard without You to be free
And found the Devil’s garment we then wore.

In pretense we try in ourselves to rip
The Devil’s cloak from ‘round our sin-soiled hearts,
And find our hands in nail-scarred hands have slipped
As You pick up our threads in brand new start.

Your nail-scarred hands through us creation weave
And all made new through hearts in You believe.

With Your Angels

Your Angels paint Your sunrise ‘cross the sky–
Reminds us of the heaven that’s to come;
Forever in death’s darkness we’ll not lie
For heaven will be always for us home.

When sunset comes and night knocks on our door,
We know You will stand ready to come in
To warm our hearts when we have spirits poor
And we repent of all our Adam’s sin.

With You we will await the coming dawn
As You within us cleanse our waiting hearts
With Your forgiveness, for which we have longed,
And You come to our world to take our part.

With Angels we will You forever know
As sunrise colors Your life-giving bow.

Wrestling with the Past

I am like Jacob wrestling with my past
And with the Lord, who’s there in future too:
A past, like sin, will not forever last
Yet lives again, cleansed by His Blood-Red dew.

For past and future both are one in Him–
Are present and eternal in His heart
As empty tomb and crib in Bethlehem
With Cross are present in our brand-new start.

For we can’t of ourselves be born again,
But He with us will wrestle in rebirth,
And with His Cross He kills our mortal sin
As new creation rises from His death.

With Jacob we will breathe His heaven’s air;
All fam’lies see He’s come down Jacob’s stair.