His Cross We Climb

How can I climb a ladder reaches high—
Is step above to heaven’s open door—
Unless His Cross comes down to bring me nigh?

I gaze above and heave a longing sigh
And feel in me at last a spirit poor;
How can I climb a ladder reaches high?

My eyes are filled with tears I cannot dry;
How can my heart climb up to Him adore
Unless His Cross comes down to bring me nigh?

My tongue shapes words for me—a mournful cry
As I long with my Lord to be restored;
How can I climb a ladder reaches high?

My eyes washed clean, see to me Satan lied;
Now I can’t rise to truth His Spirit pours
Unless His Cross comes down to bring me nigh.

But now I feel a Vine around me tied
And Spirit walks me up His Cross–we soar!
How can I climb a ladder reaches high
Unless His Cross comes down to bring me nigh?

The Path Before

I see the path before me stretched
     And know not where it leads,
But I see You are in it etched
     By Blood from Cross You bleed.

From Father’s heart to us You come
     Through Mary’s open arms,
So one of us You can become
     And share with us life’s harms.

As with us on our path You walk,
     Through deserts sometimes pass,
And with us of our lives You talk
     To tell us what will last.

With You we’re always meant to be
     And with our families too;
So on this walk Your truth we see:
     With You we heaven view. 

Song of Truth and Joy

Lord, pitch Your tent in me with joy,
Make me Your dwelling place,
And in Your mission then employ
     Your gifts for all our race.

Come, sing Your song in words from Word
     And use my mind and tongue
That others may Your truth adore
     And hear the song you’ve sung.

For song sung once on Calvary
     Was sung as alpha note
And will omega Your song be:
     Your truth for us You wrote.

In Your song we are swept away
     As earth and heaven joined
And all made new beyond the fray–  
     Recovered that purloined.

Your joy in our redemption’s wrought
     By Son who dwells in us;
He paid the price, and we’ve been bought:
     His life’s song breathed in dust.

Now, once again, Your song is heard
     As men and angels sing
Our minds’ and tongues’ omega Word:
     Praise Christ as Lord and King!

New Life

Remove, O Lord, from mouth and mind
My sins of which I now repent,
For they are Baal gods of my time
And must forever leave my tent.

May I know then who I’ve become
With thoughts and words that are from You
By Spirit who within me comes–
Brings new day fresh with morning dew.

New person now I see I am,
One born again in human flesh–
Comes forth with Blood of You, the Lamb,
Who with my heart Your heart will mesh.

My new life born in Eden’s East
Will step with You through heaven’s gate
Where I will see that heaven’s feast,
On earth I knew when You I ate.

For Body, Blood You feed us here
That’s Your new life beyond the grave,
And our new life will join You there
As You with us all Eden save.

Dark to Dawn

Your sunset’s beams shine through Your dusk-time sky,
A promise that Your dawn will rise again:
Through dark to dawn You call us all to fly.

Yet fear comes with the night when we’re to die
And rest beneath Your earth, our debt for sin–
Your sunset’s beams shine through Your dusk-time sky.

Repentance for our sin brings hope that lies
With us each night that with You we’ll descend:
Through dusk to dawn You call us all to fly.

In our deep sleep You will to us draw nigh—
The curtain drawn between us You now rend—
Your sunset’s beams shine through Your dusk-time sky,

And when You come You lift ourselves on high
With love and faith from You that will not end:
Through dark to dawn You call us all to fly,

And through it all we hear a joyful sigh
From all at rest who to You Three ascend!
Your sunset’s beams shine through Your dusk-time sky;
Through dark to dawn You call us all to fly. 

Mary’s Children

With bread and wine I offer You myself,
My joys as well as all my anguish, pain,
To be transformed, for in You all is gain
As Mary’s heart becomes my human wealth.
At altar, Mary’s heart’s my healing balm
As human nature–Yours from her–You give
To us in whom New Eve again here lives:
Through children sings she once again her psalm.
New Adam and New Eve new hearts beget
From Body of her womb on Cross made dead.
His Body, Blood to us their children fed
At table where at foot of Cross we met.
My one oblation to You is return
Of self:  Your children never shall be spurned.

Pray for Us, Mary

Pray, Mary, Holy Spirit will come grow
Those virtues of your Son in me through you
To form my heart according to your mold,
Uniquely filled with His Baptismal dew.
His Blood and Water flow from spear-stabbed side
To fill the fount of your heart–overflows,
Fills my heart when in faith with you abide,
And Holy Spirit through your prayers then know.
Please form me, Mary, with your Mother’s hand,
By Spirit guided as you formed your Son,
While I with you at foot of Cross here stand,
Receive humility–my sin undone.
Blessed Mary, pray that I like John will be
And welcome you to welcome Christ in me.

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

Our Lady of Gethsemane,
     Who suffered with our Lord,
Surrender I my fears to thee
      Who bore God ‘s Holy Word.

New Adam’s new humanity
     United in your womb,
Made one with His divinity–
     New Eve shares Adam’s tomb.

In hidden years, so patiently
     You nurtured Him full well
And pondered in humility
     The Truth He died to tell.

Your words, “Be always done to me,”
     Now echo in my ears,
As in mind’s eye your Son I see
     Release His human fears.

His willingness to bear His tree
     Shows His heart’s with yours one;
Your faith shows you are both sin-free:
     Our Eden’s fall undone.

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

THE CROSS OUR ARK

The Cross becomes our Ark like Noah built
As on it we sail through all earthly storms–
Delivers us from Adam’s sin and guilt
As we once-born below are now re-born.

We’re washed with love as on this boat we toil–
Sing joyful songs with others of His crew
And sail through death as Satan’s will is foiled:
Beneath the waves all earth by Blood made new.

For water ‘neath the prow becomes His wine
Transformed into His Blood by words He speaks
And irrigates on earth His Living Vine:
Abates His water and new earth we greet.

His Ark has brought us safe to heaven’s shore,
For we and earth are washed by Blood He poured. 

True Mercy

A bogus mercy Devil gives
     To let us have our way:
A counterfeit to “I forgive”
     When sin in us holds sway.

We’re fooled by him that wrong is right
     And world cooperates,
As through our flesh spreads Devil’s blight
     With death as our sin’s fate.

But pride in our sin will be killed
     By Jesus on His Cross;
Humility from Him will fill
     Our hearts when our sin’s lost.

And Devil writhes in his defeat
     When Jesus rises up—
Says, “I forgive” from mercy seat;
     “On Me come now and sup.”

“At altar come to eat and drink
     Through font of my new life,
And on my truth you now can think
     When I end Devil’s strife.”