CANDLE IN THE WINDOW - 2

 

DOXOLOGY

 

Glory to the Lord, God the Father Almighty,

Who into clay vessel breathed me:

Anima mea, immortal soul.

Gloria Patri Domino.

 

Glory to the Lord Jesus, Love of God,

Verbum caro factum est,

Transforming our clay, saving our souls.

Gloria Jesu Christe, qui a mortuis surrexit.

 

Glory to God, the Promised One,

Comforter, Wisdom, Love’s life-giving Fire;

my spirit he guides to choose life over death.

Gloria Spiritui Sancto.

 

ENVOI

 

The triune God is a mystery

I seek not to explain.

How shall a creature’s mortal eye see

Into the Maker’s mind - a pursuit vain?

 

With God’s breath I live,

Illumined by his fire,

To his love all mine I give,

Being with him is all my desire.

 

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

PRESENTATION

 

Rejoicing they went up to the Temple,

to present the Father his Son;

expecting a fulfilment -

the Lord’s anointed one

come to enlighten all nations -

to the Temple rejoicing he went.

 

Simeon spoke as the Spirit prompted,

no longer need he here abide;

Joseph heard, ever silent, listening

for the word that would him guide.

 

Lancing through her soul to her heart,

Mary heard words assigning her a part

in Jesus’ way to the cross whereon, rejected

by his own he died - that they be redeemèd.

 

So was the Son to his Father presented,

the Father who gave him to save us all;

both for love, the offering, the giving,

- such love will not fail us when we fall.

 

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

 

UNBIND HIM!

 

Lord, enlighten me about Lazarus,

allowed to die, raised to life.  What did you mean

by the glory of your Father, and your glory?

It seems contrived – but you contriving?

I’ll not believe that, Lord; besides,

you wept, you suffered.  Why?

 

Daughter, my time was near, the time of trial,

the refiner’s fire:

gold feels it not, but you are not metal,

nor my friends, nor I.

They forgot, for a while, my friends, as you do:

from a tomb my Father could raise the dead to

life

through me; and I

who raised Lazarus by a word would rise myself,

even as I foretold.

You forget when you panic, crying out to me

who am right beside you.

“Unbind him,” I said; I say it to you, let go

of shackles you placed yourself

on the spirit I gave you as guide.

You have locked it away like a heathen charm

to rub when you have need;

telling me what to do,

instructing your Teacher.  Child,

beloved sheep, precious one washed in my

blood,

can you not trust me to know?  To do

what’s best for you, though four days

entombed you must lie, even so,

since to new life, everlasting

I have raised you?

 

Paul understood this well, my errant sheep,

now and forever my champion fearless.

Most of all the mother I gave you, my own,

dearest and best, all human,

for you a model,

always prepared to embrace you.

Hers was a longer waiting than days,

than you have known, or Martha, or Mary.

From her first “fiat”, she waited

upon the One to whom she said:

“Be it done unto me”.

Hearing Simeon’s words

she awaited the sword,

in silence.

Before she saw me new-risen,

she understood

the dying and return to life of Lazarus.

 

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

THE POET

 

Incipe. parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem  ~ Virgil, Eclogue IV

  

Under the hill, sheltered in a cave,

her son, whose hands shaped all,

the child who was a father, *

smiled up into her eyes.

The mother who was a child, *

gazed down upon him

cradled in her arms.

  

Upon the hill, on a wooden scaffold,

the only son was sacrificed

to save his father’s flock.

No ram took his place, for he

died to give life to the sheep.

From the side of him crucified

flowed blood and water redeeming

even as the day waned.

From the rock-cut tomb in the side

of the hill, the Risen One

strode out as the day was born,

leading the way to life eternal.

So God makes a poem:

if his children can read it

 

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

 

* ref The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton

 

HARD WON

 

To learn how much folly and wrong

Stain my life, needed plague to disclose it;

Years have passed, rolled along, rolled along,

No way left, little time, to amend it;

That is how my soul has found gain,

Repentance, reparation, in the pain.

 

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

 

LUCERNA PEDIBUS MEIS

 

… verbum tuum, et lumen semitis meis.

Humiliatus sum usquequaque, Domine:

vivifica me secundum verbum tuum.~ Ps. 118

 

 Thou, O my God, hast taught me

That by my mind Thou mayst not be

Knowable ever.

 

It is not alone for thy Majesty,

Nor that Thou art All Mighty

I must Thee honour.

 

It is that Thou art Love so wholly,

All must I learn from pondering Thee,

In Jesus nailed to the Cross.

 

Through wasted decades, patiently,

In utmost need now, Thou leadest me

To gain from loss.

From end to end, Thou dost see -

Prevailing o'er sin's tragedy -

Thy loving plans succeed.

 

Ever present, watchfully,

Dost guide them who look to Thee

For light, for peace, yea all our need.

 

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

 

LOVE OF GOD

  

My love must be an ever-burning fire;

Feed my flame.

My love must be an ever-flowing stream;

Feed my spring.

My love must be a hunger ever-growing;

Feed me, Lord,

With thy Word,

With thy Body;

Filling and refilling,

Till in thy Presence

Forever I may be.

  

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

 

ON RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST

 

How do I love Thee, Lord?

Never as Thou lovest me.

From my heart remains to clear

Earthly goods, shedding no tear;

Sweep from mind cobwebbed dreams,

Let in those heavenly beams

Drawing fruit from barren vine;

Filling heart with heady wine

Of love for Thee; longing ever to be

In Thy presence, Thy face to see.

So should, so would, so shall I love Thee

An Thou, my dear Lord, abide with me.

 

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

 

DIFFERENT WAYS

 

Not one soul lives, so laden with sin

That Jesus’ love may not burst in,

Working such instant transformation

As is most like a resurrection.

 

Not many such a gift receive;

Some fail a slow change to perceive.

One sinner on a cross to the light was open;

My journey is slow, yet leads to heaven.

 

In body and spirit, with much pain,

Do I move, my true home to gain.

 

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

 

THE PRICE

 

Not all the tears that from me flow

To my soul shall restore the glow

Of lamp lit by first love's oil;

Not any thought of mine, nor toil.

 

From Your sacred heart pierced for me,

As You hung on a cross at Calvary, 

Flow that water, flow that blood,

Alone can wash me in their flood.

 

Lord, from my mind You move

Stone of my pride; of my lack-love;

My shoulders wrenched, knees broken,

Of penance due are but a token.

 

So my soul's release by such pain

Be won, I shall count it my gain.

 

Passio Christi, conforta me.

O bone Jesu, exaudi me.

  

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

 

GLEANINGS

 

ad J.R

Ut sit benedictus

 

PRELUDE

 

Reflections of an old sheep

who blundered off the cliff’s edge,

caught by thorn bushes on a ledge,

rescued by the Shepherd.

The road she cannot walk or see,

but cradled in his arms,

she learns from his heartbeat.

 

LOVE

 

Son and Father, God leaned down,

bending over that earth

Love the Spirit had made,

spreading his light-filled cloud.

Ark awaited the Covenant, unaware;

angels’ breath bated, one descended

to a maiden at love-filled prayer.

 

“Rejoice!” to the virgin he said,

“the Lord your heart now holds

would that you give his Son birth

in time, the longed-for Saviour,

David’s heir, to reign forever.”

 

Held by love to the cross Christ in glory

leaned low; Mary bowed humble acceptance;

embraced him, nails, cross - sword in her heart too;

she bore His new Covenant lovingly.

 

FAITH

 

Blind, Faith is not; soul turns to the Light,

sees the Way, ponders Truth, in the night

holds firm to Hope; answers Love with love;

heart lifts to mind, they rise above,

on the wings of the Dove ascending.

Each day, each night, itself renewing,

faith in hope must grow, in love express

itself, or die.  The Lord asks no less

Who gave much more, nor ceases giving.

I gain eternal peace by painful striving.

 

LIFE

 

Death is not easy: science measured the strain,

recorded response in a dying man’s brain.

The struggle of soul to live is no less,

repeated failures daily I confess;

yet only through effort, pain enduring,

can the bird with strengthened wing,

my soul, in flight reach further, far above,

to Him, by whom I live, whom I love.

 

I NO LONGER LIVE

But Christ lives in me. ~ Gal. 2:20

 

Yours, not mine, my Lord,

is life. Until I give

my self to the Word

in truth I may not live.

How shall I your Truth know

from self-deception?

 

“Self fulfillment you must now yield –

works of your hand and mind –

prepare your self as a field;

in its harvest you will find

Me, the Truth.  Peace will grow

in you with Truth’s perception.”

 

In the heart of my heart

deep within my very self,

heart of mind, mind of heart

Thou art, Lord.  Buried seed,

Word of Truth, grow in me

faith, hope, love, till my soul

rise from earth reaching up

to Thee Above.

 

LENT

 

Forty years, forty days, three days

entombed; so in faith, in prayer,

in patience, the time be spent,

Christ in glory rising

shall end my Lent.

 

PRAYER

 

Touch my heart

with thy Word

O God, Holy Spirit.

Fill my body, Lord,

Jesus Christ, bread of life;

life eternal, joy unending,

saving Truth.  Amen.

 

REDEMPTION

 

I was born because You loved me,

knowing me with all my flaws.

Free to choose, blessed so lovingly,

I gave but a nod to Your Laws.

 

You told me that Your yoke was light;

I paid no heed to Your import.

‘To be myself’ I took as right,

not seeing the price it would extort.

Self, not given as You bade me,

coffins the soul with the body.

 

Your yoke is light, if only I could see:

You carry half, are near - to support me.

Smug, conceited, blind, as the Pharisee

You spoke of, I let years slip away;

now come to the edge of eternity,

in my soul’s dark night You bring a

bright day:

 

“Love me as I love you, in Me your first self see,

as that self you shall love, all others loved must be.”

 

© 2022 by Ruth Heredia

Ruth Heredia is the originator and holds the copyright to all material on this blog unless credited to some source. Please do not use it or pass it off as your own work. That is theft. If you wish to link it, quote it, or reprint in whole or in part, please be courteous enough to seek my permission.