OF YOU MY HEART HAS SPOKEN

  You will show me the path of life, the fullness of joy in your presence, at your right hand, bliss for ever.   (Psalm 16 from Mass on Easter Monday) Do not judge and you will not be judged. Words of Jesus. Mostly I have thought of this in terms of not judging others negatively but it also means not judging others at all. Who am I to judge someone to be good or bad, right or wrong? The death of Pope Francis has shocked us all and there has been a great outpouring of affection and respect for him. Largely positive assessments. Yet, even in the positive comments you get the sense that experts are judging him to have done a fairly good job. But who are we to say even that? As Jesus himself said, human assessment or approval means nothing. Only God can judge.  But we have to say something because Pope Francis has touched and affected our lives from the moment he came out onto the balcony and stood in a long silence before speaking on the day he was elected. We remember ...

Holy Saturday morning. An open, empty Tabernacle. Strange praying without the Blessed Sacrament. Strange here where I am so used to having Jesus present to me in this way. It’s like having no reference point for this day. Tabernacle open and empty. Tomb closed and not empty. Waiting. Silent. I close my eyes, imagining myself to be in the tomb with the body of Jesus, in His body, wondering what it was like in the moment when He rose from the dead. But there’s no knowing. Only God was there. Only God knows. We don’t, and there’s something correct about this unknowing of ours, the realization that there are sacred mysteries that we will never know, that it’s not for us to know everything, even if we think we should. There is a mystery within each of us, that place which belongs only to God, that is known only to God and ourselves, and maybe not even to ourselves. It is in that place, from that place that new life is called forth. I see it in the fourteen adults who are baptize...

In the end When there is nothing Left to say And I cannot pray Properly With words  And the finger of silence Rests on my lips As the Holy Spirit broods Upon the formless void Before creation Breathing over The outer whitewashed Handsomeness To the shabbiness Of my inner being Whispering the Name That is dearest to my heart That Holy Name Most beautiful Yet most reviled Jesus! Delight of my eyes Desire of my soul Jesus! The only Name Jesus! The final Prayer Jesus! The ultimate Word Jesus!

  I love You Lord, my strength. My Lord and my God My God and my all My Lord, my life and my love I adore You profoundly To You I surrender, give and offer my whole self For the glory of Your Name For the Mercy of Your plan For the salvation of the world O God You are my God For You I long For You my soul is thirsting  My body pines for You Like a dry weary land without water Through all my disordered affections O Lord it is You who are my portion and cup Against you alone have I sinned O God be merciful to me a sinner Heal me Lord and I shall be healed Save me and I shall be saved For you are my praise. Heal me with the medicine of repentance Teach me perfect self-forgetfulness Grant O Lord a joyful purity of heart Guard me as the apple of Your eye Hide me in the shadow of Your wings It is Your face O Lord that I seek Hide not Your face Show me Your face Let me hear Your voice For Your voice is sweet And Your face is beautiful (A compilation of Scripture and other aspirations...

An April wind swirls About the open door Of the church Gathering fallen feathers To itself The lingering leaves Of last year’s Autumn And every bit of debris That comes its way Sweeping all of it Onto the recently Vacuumed carpet Like some prophetic saying! Are these My own old sins Come back to haunt Or new ones freshly revealed? Or are they the sorrows Of our people And those of strangers Seeking solace here? And is the wind The Holy Spirit That gathers them in?