Bible
So Cold
Click for meditationRegarding "So Cold"
These two poems are
Simply two instantaneous
Impressions of what an
Old, worn oak leaf lying on a
Winter ground manifested
To me. The oak leaf,
Lying atop snow crystals
And accompanied by a few
Sparse pine needles,
Could potentially convey an
Infinite number of
Possible meanings and
Associations. In theory,
I could write of this
One scene my remaining
Life and never lift the
Lid on all the aspects and
Interpretations.
Everything about us has
Countless takes and
Re-takes as if in a studio
During filming. This is because
Everything is part of
The unknowable mystery
Of Creation, and as the
Lord said in Isaiah,
“For My thoughts are not
Your thoughts, neither are
Your ways My ways.”
Creation’s faces are
Uncountable and ever-
Changing, but unfailingly
Have imprinted on
Them the divine features
Of Love and Beauty,
Together with those of life’s
Every day cares.
Just look into the eyes of
Whatever or whoever
Stares back at you, and you
Will see the light and
Shadows and hurt and
Happiness of the moment.
A January Dark
At not more than one
Hour before sunset, begin to
Gather in a circle to
Keep warm an oak leaf, a
Few pine needles, and
Some shivering snow and
Ice crystals, the last
Of the last to head to bed,
Already feeling the
Shadows of tree trunks
Overspreading them,
And knowing soon
Arrives another night
To close the door against
A January dark. Who’d
Have thought they’d be chosen
To spend the long night
Together – a desiccated
Leaf from a mighty
Oak, a few needles from
A towering pine,
And a collection of
Snow crystals by way of
Jacob’s Ladder, which
Had descended the rungs
Like sweet angels,
Couriers of God so the
Leaf and needles
Could softly recline.
Oak Leaf
So cold it could no
Longer hold by its fingertips
The last shivering branch
Of a nearby oak, down
It came – a twisted
Remnant of what it was,
The definitive end to
Autumn’s both anthem
And mayhem, and
With naught to do now
But to flit on frozen
Snow and ice, until again
This spring when the
Six creative days of Genesis
Would be reenacted
And re-begin.
Night Coming
(Matthew 10:34,39)
As if arising from a
Molten-hot volcano You are,
Heat from heat, flaming
Oranges and pinks
In an unimaginable
Power athwart an early
Night sky – the Word
Become Inferno, to
Sear with a sword and to
Lay waste what still
Slithers the Garden of
Eden outside…
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…
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.