Eucharistic Adoration
Click for meditationRegarding "Eucharistic Adoration"
There is the well known
Account described in the Gospels
Where Jesus is on His knees
In the Garden of Gethsemane,
Praying that if it’s in His Father’s
Will, to have the cup of His
Crucifixion removed from His lips.
According to the Gospels,
Jesus in His anguish sweat blood,
Such was the unfathomable
Distress He was feeling.
He asked His disciples who
Were with Him to stay awake
And to pray with Him. Try as
They might, however, none
Of his disciples were able to do
This, such was the over-
Whelming crush of emotion
Weighing upon them. And then
I think of all the times
That I, too, have not been
Able to keep Jesus company…
And I then slide under the
Waves of my life, wishing I had
Not judged so harsh…
Leo Carroll
December 23, 2021
In the Presence of You
My eyes want to close,
O Lord, but You already know that,
Having sadly seen my face and
Noticed nothing over the past
Two thousand years has
Really ever changed – it is still
Too difficult for me to kneel
And to accompany You in
This alter-Gethsemane of
A simple church’s pew.
So patient with me You are!
But after all these millennia, I still
Cannot keep my eyes open,
Such is the effect of Your yoke’s
Light weight upon my eyelids
Up-and-down motion.
Leo Carroll
December 14, 2021
St. Anne’s Church
Littleton, Massachusetts
Musing
Lord, are You really
Enclosed within that luna
Which safe-keeps and
Cradles the host
Inside its glass, does
Your unimaginable Lordship
Reign meekly within
The monstrance
As if the consecrated
Bread was a mustard seed
Onto good soil about
To be cast? O please help me
To remain prayerfully
In front of You,
Sweet Lord! I am so
Used to restlessly
Shifting and moving like
The wild man who
Ran out from the burial
Caves, his chains
Broken and dangling,
Of You terrorized, afraid.
Ode to Lord
You observe me in Your
Pervasive “I AM WHO I AM” presence,
Never letting me go, while I, in my
Earthly obliviousness and
Nonchalance, am
Protected by You
Beneath the wing of Your
Sweet shadow. Why,
O Lord, why do You so
Faithfully suffer my
Abandonment of You?
I have far, far surpassed the
‘Three times’ before the cock in
The courtyard crowed…
Here
Click for meditationRegarding "Here"
I have been to Plum Island
So often, starting from when I was
Just a little boy ten years old, right up to
The present when I was there three
Times during a magical stretch in October.
Instead of thinking pumpkins, though,
I was thinking about “grief,” but
Also about “rebirth.” Plum Island is my
Sanctuary when I need sanctuary.
It is my piece of Heaven,
When I need to be reaffirmed
In my faith and to feel the
Absolute awe and wonder of
The eternal Creator, the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
The “I AM WHO I AM.” So
Over the years, each individual
Wave and sea state, when
I would come and look out over
The boardwalk, has gifted
Me a peak, a hint, into the
Infinite possibilities of the forms
And faces of God, and when
Each time the bare ripple of the
Foam of a wave has touched
My feet, it has always done so in a
Way in which understanding and
Acceptance were conveyed.
Here at Heaven’s gate
Laps nigh my feet in its final
Wake the tide, bare
Seconds before returning
Back out to where it
Will regather into all its foam
And former strength,
And then once more
Come rolling back, to
Kiss where in another life
I had in memory’s bliss this
Sand reclined.
Eternity’s Sea
Out it froths, as from
An inexhaustible fount of Word,
From a Source far beyond
All creature knowledge, but
Yet a humble foam eager
To greet my footprints
Face to face on the beach,
My steps, those of a pilgrim come
From afar like once did three
Wise visitors from the east,
When the tremendous roar of a
Rushing sea across sand
And stars was heard, and was
Forever altered the countenance
Of God… when it took
On the image of an infant
In a poor stable, and in the
Newborn’s hand was clenched
A sword of straw.
Wafer
Click for meditationRegarding "Wafer"
In the Old Testament,
In the Book of Genesis, is found
The Creation story. Yes, it is a
Simple story, but it speaks
As a tome of eternal Truth – that in
Some mysterious way, the
Earth came into being and was
Populated with humans (“creatures”) and
Plants and animals and birds
And fishes and all else living…
All things in Creation were
Described as complementing each
Oth’r. A simple story, but oh so
Complicated! Then fast forward to the
New Testament in which Jesus
Is revealed as the Son of
God, the Son of the very Creator in
The Old Testament Who saw
All He had made after six days and
Declared it to be “very good!”
And in the New Testament, it was
Jesus Who restored the beauty
Of Creation’s original goodness and work!
In Revelation 21:5, Jesus exclaimed,
“Behold, I make all things new!”
And in a way this was re-
Affirmed to me recently, when
I saw a yellow maple leaf
Lying up’n a geranium like a
Wafer up’n a tongue in Holy Communion,
The brotherhood of the New
Covenant in consonance with the
Supporting structure of the
Prophets and the Law of Moses
Of the Old Covenant.
Leo Carroll
December 1, 2021
A single, yellow
Maple leaf, lying lightly like a
Communion wafer on
The sheen of a geranium
Green and meek,
Resting as if waiting
Up’n the tongue of the
Plant to receive it,
But the geranium was
Paused, wanting to savor
What was bought in
Gethsemane, in the dark of
That Garden at such
Great cost…