Beauty
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.
Revelation 21:5
"Behold, I Make All Things New"
And so blew a breath
Across the waters, and the surf
Came in, and the sand
Grains believed…
And then nothing more
Was heard, because
With that one verse all was
Made clean…
O Maple Tree
Click for meditationRegarding "O Maple Tree"
Every year I am
Susceptible to the whims of
Autumnal melancholy. Whether it
Is due to the falling leaves
Delivering an emphatic
Message of earthly
Impermanence, and
Rekindling within me the
Furies of things I would re-do
Differently, or the
Good things I have
Known and are now no
More, or something else…
But in its final gasps of
Change, fall is spectacularly
Beautiful and comforting – – setting an
Unmatchable standard of self
Sacrifice and duty, right
Up to the last leaves to fall and
The final glimpses of their
Wonderful, fading glory,
Particularly if I had kneeled
Down over them and
Was marveling how their
Plentitude must rival
The stunning miracle of the
Loaves and fishes as
They once laid multiplied
And displayed near the
Sea of Galilee.
Leo Carroll
November 21, 2021
O maple tree, your
Leaves lie crinkled beneath
My knees, but their
Yellow tatters still speak
In little whispers
Of warmth and love,
The kind that autumn
Spawns, tho’ it be “change”
In its goodbye hug.
Daisies
Click for meditationRegarding "Daisies"
Every fall, every late fall,
I always marvel how certain flowers can
Survive until the very last moment,
And still continue to show their beauty.
But unlike in the spring and
Summer, I have to search to locate
Their faces, and I invariably
Find them almost hidden
By the mushrooming debris
In a garden otherwise fastidiously
Manicured in spring, summer,
And early fall. But by late fall they are
Like a gem found in the middle
Of chaos (leaves of all sorts, twigs,
Branches, pine cones), or a
Lamp uncovered from the burden of
A dark shade, in short, a simple,
Loyal, floral planting saying
‘Thank you’ for all the months of
Cultivation – when their chance to
Repay comes with only days
Before they, too, go away.
Leo Carroll
November 27, 2021
Can two beating hearts
Make it through the coming winter?
Cuddled and close they are,
As if autumn would always linger…
But can they find safe refuge,
And can the surrounding
Oak leaves continue to protect?
Because what happens
When December comes, and
Their love is shivering —
Will they have any regret?
Chipmunk
Click for meditationRegarding "Chipmunk"
And so I saw a summer
Chipmunk – standing on its hind legs
Like it was part of the Lewis
And Clark Expedition and
Staring in awe at what is now
Called Yellowstone Park!
It stood as tall as it absolutely
Could, ramrod straight,
And was perfectly still lest it
Disturb a single blade
Of grass on the infinite plain
Before it…So engrossed
It seemed in ‘something,’
Fascinated, mesmerized, that
It dared almost not to
Breathe…and then
It relented, its chest relaxing,
And it moved serenely
Into my flower bed –
A mere ten feet away –
Its answer to the meaning of
Existence contained in
What a lemon-yellow daylily
On its face had to say.
Leo Carroll
September 25, 2021
Up’n its hind legs,
Stretching its tendons to almost
Breaking while peering o’er
The summer grass, a
Chipmunk surveils the vast,
Unlimited prairie
Before its gaze, perhaps
Looking for love or food or
Danger or something
I can imagine not,
But all it sees is a
Thursday morning –
Dawned like all others –
Except that for a
Few seconds I captured
Its contemplation
Of the universe’s infinite
Landscape…until it
Settled on my garden a
Mere ten feet away, and knew
It was seeing whate’er
It would e’er need
To see…or e’er hope for
In answered prayer.