Beauty
Grace
O my Lord,
You so easily peer into
my heart, winding Your way
deftly and knowingly through the darkened
corridors and staircases
and recesses of my soul –
and alas You find
me, on a slab in a drab
burial cloth, hidden
behind a hewn rock hitherto
unrolled – but just as in
the Garden of Eden when
You found Adam and Eve in leaves
aft their fall clothed, and
just as for Lazarus in
Bethany four-days aft his
death be told, You mercifully
summoned me forth,
and grace’s white raiment You
chose I wore.
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.
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…
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…
Cedars
(Matthew 19, John 2)
So this is my Shepherd’s gate,
the entrance to which certainly is not
what I had anticipated — the eyelet of a
needle for a camel to impossibly
navigate! But rather have emerged
the soft colors of gold and green, caught
in the autumn light of an
end-of-afternoon, cedar dream.
And a tear washes my cheek,
overcome by the unmerited, sweet
mercy which grace in beauty has
bathed me! Thus I realize at this very
late hour, was revealed the
delicate veil which gives access to
Cana’s wedding feast and
shaded bower…