Category: Other Poetry

Lord, kill in me those prophets false;
     I’m on Elijah’s side.
Baal prophets in me contest lost;
     They cross that great divide.

Then through their deaths release in me
     Your Spirit’s prophet gift,
That with Elisha I may see
     Elijah’s chariot lift.

Come speak through me your prophet’s word,
     Through Resurrection known;
Slay Satan with your sure swift sword
     By Spirit’s breath that’s blown.

O let me speak your charity,
     For all the world you made–
Your clarity world needs to see
     Brought by your Spirit’s blade.

Come, cut us all right to the quick,
     And show us Natural Law–
Was there before sin made us sick,
     As all the prophets saw.

Now birth again that Law you gave
     By your Creator’s Word;
In that New Birth your world you save
     through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Give all baptized your prophet gift
     That with Elijah we
May chariot ride to heaven–lift
     All Eden there to thee.

Forever once has spoken our good Lord
In Son descended from His throne on high—
His truth that lasts for all time in His Word.

Before and later tied by heaven’s cord,
His voice is He who answers mournful cry.
Forever once has spoken our good Lord.

The poor in spirit feel His Spirit’s sword
And know from cutting edge His truth is nigh–
His truth that lasts for all time in His Word.

His living Word from His pierced side is poured
And washes clean our world of Satan’s lie.
Forever once has spoken our good Lord.

He feeds us with His Blood, and we adore
The One who came that our sin with Him dies.
His truth that lasts for all time in His Word

Has silenced once for all time Devil’s roar,
And we in heaven’s arms breathe grateful sigh.
Forever once has spoken our good Lord—
His truth that lasts for all time in His Word. 

Unless we want eternity
     Your mercy we won’t know,
For You intend for us to be
     The fruit from seeds you sow.

A fruit that is for heaven made
     With nectar will be pure,
Freed from the blight grown in sin’s shade
     And by Son’s light is cured.

The ones we love will with us share
     Your mercy here below:
A garment we’ll forever wear
     When we Your heaven know. 

It is so hard to press ahead
Unless we hold to what is true
And fix our eyes on Christ our head,
Whose virtues He in us imbues.

Embracing Cross with joyful hearts
We leave behind our sin and dross;
With every day a brand new start,
Our worldly gain we count as loss.

The road ahead a ladder raised
To heaven we with family climb
And with them lose ourselves in praise
Of Him whose providence is rhyme.

For we begin in grace to see
How everything together fits
When we in Spirit bend our knee:
In Trinity our souls are knit. 

Beyond the sunset, Jesus lives again
On other side of death He knows with us
And rises with us free from death and sin
As in Him we are called to place our trust.

The sunset now becomes a promise made
That all our wrongs will once more be made right
As His dawn lifts the dark of our sin’s shade
And in His righteousness shows forth His light.

His sunset’s hope becomes for us a sign
Of New Creation for which we have longed,
As from His sunset we drink dawn’s new wine
And live anew in Church where we belong.

We gather ’round His Tabernacle there
And know His sunset’s dawn is with us here. 

The Jordan I have finally crossed;|
     Through faith I understand.
My former life at last is lost,   
     And I’m in Promised Land.

My dragon’s skin I’m shedding now,          
And real me sees the light:
A light for all before Him bow
     To bask in His new life.

I know not what the future holds,
     Yet love will always guide–
A love that for His purpose molds
     My life born from His side.

With all my loved ones I will go
     To heaven on His breath,
As bodies, souls reborn below
Will know undying health.

I searched for what is permanent
Amid those things away will pass—
Where I can find the merriment
That comes from what will everlast.

And then I found the Catholic Church
Among vicissitudes of life
Through whom the Lord loves us so much
Despite our Satan’s sin-caused strife.                                                                  

I found the lamp set on a hill
That shines within our darkened night,
And I can hear voice small and still
Call us to what is true and right.

Yet voices shrill objections howl
And try to kill the  Church’s Word
With sharpened words and withering scowl
To try to blunt St. Michael’s sword. 

How pitiful we all have been
Who’ve placed our faith in things will pass
And cannot see the Church, His Queen,
The Bride of Christ who everlasts. 

His Cross is chisel to my heart
     To chip away my dross;
One greater than my heart imparts
     Himself at His own cost.

He sees in me His image made
     The moment I’m conceived,
Yet I am born beneath sin’s shade;
     For my true self I grieve.

I pine for Him to re-make me
     And call forth who’s within;
I long to Him to bend my knee
     As He saves me from sin.

Then from the granite of my heart
     Emerges my true self:
The Master Sculptor’s work of art
     Returned to Eden’s health. 

Your Word precedes the thoughts within our minds
When we pray written words found in your Psalms,
And in our hearts your Word before us finds

To lead us from earth’s prose into your rhyme;
We feel poured in ourselves your healing balm,
Your Word, precedes the thoughts within our minds

Of Image marred in Adam’s fallen line;
Redeems in us your likeness at our dawn,
And in our hearts your Word before us finds:

First found in her a branch of her Son’s vine,
Whose “yes” by you received as human alms;
Your Word precedes the thoughts within our minds,

Transfixes us with truth and beauty, binds
Our minds to you in Mary’s inner calm,
And in our hearts your Word before us finds.

Those Psalms when opened show us who’s behind
Our world of shadows is in your light gone;
Your Word precedes the thoughts within our minds,
And in our hearts your Word before us finds.

A gentle wind through grave clothes blows
To show those clothes are empty now,
And stone once sealed no longer closed
For Son of God has kept His vow.

From death He rises and appears
To point the way to where He’ll be;
As burning hearts allay their fears,
He vanishes in bread they see.

Then they remember words He said
To them on night before He died
That he would be in wine and bread,
A gift from Him who’s crucified.

Now at each Eucharistic Meal
In bread and wine He always comes,
For tomb in garden is unsealed,
And Body, Blood they here become.

As here we feast, the angels sing
Of Him who died and rose again
Who is of all creation King–
He’s vanquished Satan, death, and sin.