Very well done, Michaela!

My body is so old, it doesn’t shine at all
and water is eating it alive!
There is still so much left of me
half dead muscles
and thick wilting skin
Why do I still want
milk and bread and meat
even though I’ve seen the tree
and heard the blood pooling at her feet
We could, instead, sit in the wood
our hands dug profoundly in the snow
We are sorry
and the river swells around us
making our bodies hurt more
Drink the wine before the water eats that, too!
I did as you said
a decent daughter has to
I placed my breath onto a cloth
and washed your poor feet
with balmy strokes
We admired the sky
missing, all the while,
the calf eating a patch of grass beside us


 :scared2:  hahaha. eep!

The Holy Rood

Walkest thou unto that lonely hill,
The hill that concealeth Adam's bones,
And behold the flowers, of hue white and golden
That sprang up at the touch of the Nail's sweet balm.

Walkest thou unto that lonely hill,
To stand a while, and marvel aloud,
At the cruelty of men, and the love of angels,
Who watched Emmanuel, with agony rapt,
Pleading for the souls of Eve's wretched race.

Walkest thou unto that lonely hill,
Clothed in sack-cloth and washed in ashes,
Bitter herbs 'pon thy lips, and Palm-fronds in thy hand,
Singing of the Passion and the Harrowing of Hell,
Of the Sun of Righeouness, of the Three and One.

Walkest thou unto that lonely hill,
Beyond the Walls, to see the Holy Rood,
Of crude fashion it is, rough and unyielding,
Whereon the Son of Man wast hung,
And comfort the Maid that weepeth there.

- my own rather poor contribution to this section.

My son came home with his poem "homework," and said that I could post it.  It's "free verse" and was supposed to be about "his generation." While being his mother helps, I thought it was good for his age and that it took some courage to submit this on his own in public school:

Our Generation
We care little,
We do little,
We think little,
We know little.
We stand betwixt the stars affixed
in the heavens and another place.
Amidst the confines of time and space,
much like those before us.
They stood and thought where
we stand and think about life
Life, what a life, a life which
Endures,
Persists,
Perplexes and
Passes with time.
A time for everything
to live
to die
to fly
to the stars?
The stars that shine.
The stars that shone.
The stars that reside beyond
in the other place,
The place afar,
and yet so close!
A place to which the heavens cannot compare.
We eat,
We drink,
But do we fain to be merry?
For tomorrow death awaits.
So what is this place, and where?
How to get there?
Do we take a giant leap
lest per chance we fall asleep?
A leap of faith.
A leap of trust.
A leap beyond?
We look without.
We look within.
For both therein we find
the answer.
The answer,
the purpose,
the reason,
the wonder,
Our Creator,
Christ the King!

Your poem "the Holy Rood" is beautiful, St. John Burke.  A true Lenten poem...

Have you ever heard of Enid M. Dinnis and her book The Anchorhold?  It is a magnificent classic that I think you would appreciate.  It can be found at Tradibooks.com.

Quote from: MyrnaM

I love these lines in the first poem, in fact I will add them to my daily prayers.

You once changed water into wine,
Then change my will
To make it Thine

Dear Myrna,

Yes, I like that as a prayer too.  The version I put up may not be best, since the 2nd part might read:

You once changed water into wine,
Then change my will
To make it Thine.
Change all my life into a sign
That wonders happen still

I like the idea that He did the miracle at Cana partly as a "sign" of the Blessed Sacrament, in which He longs to be "one" with us.  Since we're weak and sinful, that unity can't become perfect unless we let Him change our corrupted desires into His.  At that point, we won't even exist (as we were), but some people begin to notice more and more peace-- even in the midst of trials and "dry" periods. Some even see outright miracles happen!  

But you're probably way ahead of me on all that.  BTW, I love your artwork. Art is another interest I have in common.

God Bless,  
Anne~

While the thought is sweet and the intention innocent, it seems to me
there might be a theological problem with this.  

We pray in the Our Father, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  

That is the pure essence of what God wants of us.  There is no prayer more
theologically perfect than the Pater Noster, ----------- IMHO.  

(I know -- that sounds like an oxymoron.)

But to say, Please change my will, like Thou changest water into wine,
change my will and make it thine (small t is correct because it's not a
personal pronoun, but a possessive pronoun: singular, second person
possessive pronoun, archaic, actually, but we like it just the same!) is
in a way a bit presumptuous.  For, if God would change our will into
his own will, then He would be in a sense taking away our own will and
replacing it with his own, lest He would be taking away our personhood
and making us as it were another person of the Blessed Trinity.  Then
one plus one plus one plus one would be three.  That's another problem.

But it's the confusion of the creature with the creator that is at stake
here.  Our will is ours, and God's will is God's.  We are certainly well-
disposed to ask that his will be done (on earth as it is in heaven) but
to say 0BLITERATE MY WILL AND GIVE ME THINE OWN WILL INSTEAD,
is over the top.  

IMHO.

This was the trouble with the Kingdom of the Divine Will psycho-group
with which a close relative of mine got involved and I suspect has
become demonically possessed as a result.  IMHO again.

God's will is most real and God's respect of our own will is likewise most
real.  It is perhaps our most precious possession, inasmuch as it could
be the thing that decides whether we are saved or damned for all
eternity.  Nobody goes to hell if they really don't want to.  Nobody is
deprived of heaven if they desire nothing whatsoever to do with hell.
Everyone who goes to hell does so with their own cooperation and/or
consent.

God's respect of our free will is perhaps the greatest mystery ever.

IMHO again.

What are we, that God would respect our free will?  We are something
like an ant on a dunghill in an uninhabited remote corner of nowhere,
compared to the vastness of the universe, and all the mysteries
thereof, known to us and also yet undiscovered by us.  What is the
comparison?  To Him and to his will, we and our tiny will are none to
compare.  And yet, He respects our free will.  

Now, for us to come along and say, "No, I don't respect my own free
will, even if Thou dost, O Lord, so please take it away and replace it
with thine own will,"  does not recognize the dignity - the everlasting
dignity - that God bestows on our free will.  

We don't have to understand WHY He does so;  we don't have to
comprehend WHAT He's got 'in mind' with this scheme;  we don't
have any claim on a right to know his reasons for doing this.   All
we need to know is, that God has bestowed an everlasting
dignity on our puny, miniscule, contemptible, nothingness
free will, and that should be enough for us.  We ought to have the
humility to ACCEPT what God has decided shall be, and not attempt
to get 'under the hood' with our 'cracker-jack toolbox' and attempt
to rebuild the engine that drives the universe.  



It's that big-a-deal!








Our father, Who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name.  

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.  

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses;

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

Amen.  







There is no poem of greater depth and beauty.



IMHO, again.



Pater noster, qui es in coelis,

Sanctificetur nomen tuum.

Adveniat regnum tuum,

Fiat voluntas tua,

Sicut in caelo et in terra.  

Panem nostrum quotidianum,

Da nobis hodie.

Et dimitte nobis demita nostra,

Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.

Et ne nos inducas in tentationem,

Sed libera nos a malo.

Amen.




In fond memory of Richard Keys Biggs,

Conductor, father and friend of thousands.

RIP.

These Poems are beautiful.

 :applause: