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Saving Mercy

O Lord, “create in me
a clean heart”
and wash the soiled
memories and reasonings
from the murals to which I cling.*
“Leadeth me beside the
still waters,”
wherefrom Your Love can
bathe my soul in Beauty.**
O Lord, “create in me
a clean heart,”
and I, in surety, can in
Your sheepfold rest in peace,
dipping my gourd into
Your living spring, eternally
slaking what before
could not be relieved.***

Leo Carroll
September 6, 2025
Westford, Massachusetts

* Psalm 51:10
** Psalm 23:2
*** John 4:14



Photo by Leo Carroll

Ode to Jesus

So much of You
is mystery,
so much of You is
Bethlehem stable and
Calvary Cross.

So much of You
is shadow,
so much of You is
Light o’ercoming doubt
of Thomas.

Leo Carroll
October 26, 2024
Near Manzanita, Oregon



Photo by Leo Carroll

Light

Awe

Lord, there is no
darkness too dark for Your Light.
There is no noise too loud
for Your Silence. There
is only You, and before You
I stand mute.

The Truth

The Light came out of
the darkness, and still comes out.
The darkness could not
restrain the Light, and still cannot.
The Light shone and still
shines, while the darkness
cowers, by the Light made blind.

Light and Hope

Where there is darkness,
there has to be Light, to see it…
Where there is despair,
there has to be Hope, to free it…

Leo Carroll
October 25, 2024
Indian Beach, Oregon



Photo by Leo Carroll

Matthew 17: 1-5

"As They Looked on, a Change Came over Him"

Which
one Heaven,
which one Earth,
each’s seeming the
mirror reflection of the other,
each’s image and likeness
and raiment
transfigured as on
Mount Tabor – strikingly
white, blinding the
eyes of those who from the
waters and clouds
the voice of God
heard…

Leo Carroll
October 25, 2024
Indian Beach, Oregon



Photo by Leo Carroll

On the Shore

(Ode to Mary Magdalene)

Unfurl your heart,
dear woman, and across the
Sea of Galilee to the other
side set your sail.
There, on the far shore,
awaits you the Lord, dressed in His
garments of dazzling white,
Gethsemane defeated,
and gone forever the drops
of blood in fear of
Golgotha’s nails.

Leo Carroll
February 4, 2024
Westford, Massachusetts



Photo by Lisa Forkner (via Unsplash.com).