Lukulu children hugging Love for Lukulu missionary Tomas
In those places where Love waits for me… Will I pause to rest? Within my heart of hearts, Love waits And misses me When I forget… Will I sit and visit with this Guest?
In those kids who chase and make me laugh… Would I glance Love’s dirtied face? From family I neglect to see Who memories share Who cherish me… Would I dare receive Love’s firm embrace?
At the altar-banquet spread for me…* Will I there love Love, its Host? In Truth-words that are said to me Or written down That set me free… Will I let Him love me, Who loves most?
Sts. Louis and Zelie, parents of St. Therese, the “Little Flower”
What if I hinted that someone is smitten? Head over heels Who loves without quittin’ Who cares for you more than a kid for her kitten Just hopelessly smitten with you
What if I mentioned you’re now on His mind? Not every so often But all of the time With eyes for you only! Since you He designed And loved, before earth was unearthed
What if I stuttered that by you He’s lovestruck? Afire with affection And for you, was nailstruck A Soulmate; a friend; not just any ol’ schmuck Whose stricken heart quickens for you
What if this someone is just a bit nutty? “Pazzo d’amore” (1) (Crazy with love) He’d give life and limb for you, push came to shove In fact, so He did! Long ago
What if I said that this Friend is besotted? “Drunk” with devotion (1) “Cross-eyed”, He fought Through death, He unblotted our sin-spotted souls Through love, hardened hearts He will conquer
What if I blustered, “This Bridegroom has named you…” “His ‘Chosen’ and ‘Crown’… (2) “His ‘Own’ He has claimed you”?
In silence He summons you, calling your name
To prep you for the “when” He will send
When the winter and rains of this valley will end (3)
Every hour to His side He bids, Come (4)
On a cross I was smitten…
With you, and for you
My spouse
My beloved
My friend
***** (1) St. Catherine of Siena: “You, high eternal Trinity, acted as if You were drunk with love [pazzo d’amore], infatuated with Your creature.. You, Sweetness itself, stooped to join Yourself with our bitterness. You, Splendor, joined Yourself with darkness; You, Wisdom with foolishness; You, Life with death; You, the Infinite, with us who are finite. What drove you to this?”
(2) Old Testament
(3) Song of Songs (Solomon) 2:11
(4) John 7:37; Isaiah 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price”
True prayer is desire A longing, a yearning A stoking of fire That purges and brands without burning
A sigh– to unsmother A cry– soaked in hope A glance– at the Lover Who with every soul, would elope
Before prayer begins The Stag has been leaping (2) Across peaks within To trade His own joy for our weeping
Prayer answers that thirst Our heartaches make known Yet God has it worse Prayer mergesHisthirst with our own (1)
To pray is to dine On “meat” and “wine blended”- (2.5) The “choicest of wine”- (3) Our drought and our famine upended
To hand off what harms To slough off dismay To sink into Arms That mold to His image this clay (3.5)
The soul’s transformation A bath in love’s Flame Sweet divinization The Bridegroom’s new life free fromshame
When things go as planned Or couldn’t have gone worse (4) When life’s “fine and dand” Or soon to be hailing a hearse
When warmed by the sun Or while the flakes fly When the fight’s lost or won When “Thanks” is the only reply
Where silence is falling And list’ning unfettered Where no voice is calling But HIS Voice, within, or red-lettered
In bedrooms or churches On hikes to the peak In the bus as it lurches There‘s no place where one cannot seek…
And be found…
Bythe OneWho, for love, ever searches
*****
(1) Catechism of the Catholic Church #2560
(2) Song of Songs 2:9
(2.5) Proverbs 9:2
(3) Psalm 127
(3.5) Isaiah
(4) “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances” -1 Thessalonians 5:18
(5) Zephaniah 3
“I assure you that God is much better than you believe. He is content with a glance, a sigh of love.” “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”-St. Therese of Lisieux
“Labour, therefore, to increase the fire of your desire, and let not a moment pass without crying to Me with humble voice, or without continual prayers before Me for your neighbours.’-God to St. Catherine of Siena, from the Dialogue
Rhymes for the Rejoiceful 