Category: Other Poetry

Our mem’ries come from lives are past
     To point the way before,
For our lives will forever last
     As we on Spirit soar.

Our once-upon-a-time is now, 
     Eternity’s own gift,
When we before Your monstrance bow
    And earth to heaven lifts.

Where You are in our past made clear–
 It takes our breath away—
For all that’s in our hearts held dear
     Forever with You stays.

And then the future opens wide
     That’s seen in light from past,
As in your way do we abide:
     Your truth forever lasts. 

Your wisdom sees the harmony of all
As angels play your glorious symphony,
And you give us your wisdom when we call
To see creation’s heart that sets us free.
In your creation’s center glory dwells
In Three who are a likeness of yourself
Who’ve come with heart of yours—Emmanuel—
Restores our race to perfect human health.
Each living family here can now begin,
With all those families who have gone before,
To live in paradise with you again,
Join angels, to your Trinity adore.
We taste the fruit of life from Cross you raise,
For tomb is empty, and we sing your praise. 

His cleansing rain upon us falls,
     A blessing from above,
Baptizes us who on Him call
     With sacrificial love.

His water bears to us His Blood
     Atones for all our sin;
As we with Mary ‘neath Him stood,
     Are through her born again.

His Blood His Body also bears;
     Both enter into us–
Consumes in His love all our fears,
     Breathes life into our dust.

Our clay is formed by Spirit’s hand
     As in us water breathed;
New life through us comes to His land–
     No more is His heart grieved.

And now hope rises with His rain;
     We drink His blessings down,
And washed away is all our pain
     As in us grace abounds. 

His Eucharist now calls us forth
     To leave ourselves behind
To find in Him our sacred worth:
       Our true selves there to find.

His Body, Blood become our own
     As we are born again;
His seed in us by Father sown,
     And we are free from sin.

His Spirit quickens life in us,
     And all is fresh and new;
We look at world and in Him trust,
Baptized in morning dew.

This life we see is but a step
     To heaven where we’ll be,
For Triune Love has all us kept
     Alive in Trinity. 

Your future for me has reclaimed my past
To make it pure for our eternity—
In God’s plan sin was never meant to last,  
So from its grip I’m destined to be free. 
My past is given back when cast is made
And truth beneath the lie is finally seen;
No longer is it covered by death’s shade,
And it is seen for what it’s always been.
Forgiveness will forever mem’ries wash—
Make clean my life that I have lived before–
And I can celebrate in Spirit’s splash
That carries me through heaven’s open door
Where I arrive at last to fully live
The human life that Jesus to me gives. 

We travel earth so we can find
A place we can forever dwell
Where heart and soul and strength and mind
In union will be always well—

But here fragmented life we live
On eastern side of gate, now barred,
And union our own wills won’t give
As long as our frail hearts we guard—

But then He comes who’s one of us;
In eastern lands He shares our fate,
And yet His heart His Father trusts
On our side of that eastern gate—

And His obedience for us wins
The land beyond that locked gate lies,
And we can with Him enter in
To find our destined Paradise. 

We ask for mercy, Holy Trinity,
On us who have distorted human likeness here
Of You who give us life and light to see

Your truth that we’re to live in world sin-free
Where we the gift of your light yoke can bear.
We ask for mercy, Holy Trinity,

That every family once again will be
Your icon where we learn to have no fear
Of You who give us life and light to see                             

Your truth reflected in a Fam’ly Three        
Where wise and shepherds can your angels hear.
We ask for mercy, Holy Trinity,

That fam’lies now can wait expectantly
In likeness cleansed that we forever wear:
Of You who give us life and light to see.

For into time You bring eternity
Where You in Holy Fam’ly Three appear.
We ask for mercy, Holy Trinity,
Of You who give us life and light to see. 

Where is the key to unlock gate
To paradise for which we’re made,
The key for which we all now wait
To enter where God once forbade?

And then we see upon a hill
A key-shaped Cross for us is raised
Where our sin is forever killed,
And we with angels will Him praise.

For there the final battle fought
With Satan, by His Cross impaled;
Defeated is the one who brought
His death to us when we God failed.

Now He who has become like us
Will bury in His tomb our sin
And rise with life so we can trust
Ourselves to Him, be born again.

He came to give us all the key
Will open gate to Tree of Life;
With open eyes we then can see
All truth and beauty by His light. 

Through bitter valley I have been
To reach this ladder to the sky
Where angels can descend to men,
Proclaim the Son to us draws nigh.

For down that ladder He now comes
To Full of Grace who has said “Yes,”
And in her womb a man becomes:
A sovereign who is now our guest.

He comes to Adam’s sin forgive
In us who are his progeny,
As new life to each one He gives:
A life from Him makes us sin free.

And yoked to Him we ladder climb
Into the dawn from heaven shines,
As all on earth is made sublime—
Washed clean by Blood is His new wine.

New earth by heaven’s grace appears
As all creation by Him raised—
Breathes air that brings His heaven’s cheer:
To Trinity we all sing praise! 

How often have I chased the wind
     Of my own vain desires?
How often does my soul pretend—
     And yet pretending tires.

Then comes the Holy Spirit’s breath;
     My falsehood blows away
And saves me from a living death
     Where Satan has held sway.

His Spirit’s sweetness saturates,
     And I’m created new.
No longer I prevaricate;
     My true self now I view.

And others now I see through Him–
     See glory in each one–
For He who is the great I Am
     Has Satan’s work undone.