Category: lectio divina

2015.01.19: busted wineskin

Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins. — Mk 2:22

drawn by your Holy Spirit
i sought you in the holiest temple
a place filled with reverence
week after week i worshipped piously
fasting and keeping all the precepts

aspiring for a place of honor
i asked for your grace
and you granted my prayer
pouring new wine into old wineskin
so it was that my heart broke
and my cloak was torn
i cried out in my nakedness
through my tears i finally saw
with clarity > the errors of my way

again i imposed upon your grace
begging as a sinner for mercy
and once again you showed
nothing is greater than your goodness
as you poured out your love
and the wine that was changed into blood
healed and transformed my heart
whereas wineskins bust and cannot be repaired
hearts mend stronger than before they broke

then you clothed me in my baptismal robe

2015.01.18: waiting at the shores

“Speak, for your servant is listening.” 1 Sam 3:10

here i am at the shores
that separate the land from the sea
where man’s wandering feet must stop
i wait to hear you call

the sun has risen and set
the gulls have tired of playing and left
the tides have come and gone
still i wait at the shores

you have called the prophet
you have called the fishermen
you have made them both priests
i wait to hear you call

waves after waves of words have washed
over the beaches of my mind
yet you left no words written in the sand
still i wait at the shores

could it be that’s all there is
just you and me sitting in darkness
nothing to separate nothing to say
waiting for my ship to come

2015.01.16: there will be no rest

Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience. Heb 4:11

He forgave the sinner
He cured the lame
still their heart was hardened
there will be no rest

the mind may believe the scriptures
the lips may profess the creed
if the heart is hardened
there will be no rest

my eyes see his miracles
my lips glorify his name
unless my heart loves
there will be no rest

unless i love God
and all my neighbors
as i love myself
i will have no rest

2015.01.15: i am the living God

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. Heb 3:12

i am the living God
when you see a sunrise
the light beneath a bird in flight
a painting come to life

i am the living God
when you hear a sparrow sing
the laughter of children playing
the stillness of the early hours

i am the living God
when you smell the smoke of a wood fire
the aroma of baking bread
the fragrance of honey suckle

i am the living God
when you taste a vine ripened grape
water from a clear running stream
the Bread of Life

i am the living God
when you feel the grass under your feet
hold a newborn in your arms
take the hand of a stranger

i am the living God
i am always with you
in the solitude of deserted places
the miracles of ordinary days

2015.01.14: die no more

and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life. – Heb 2:15

that day in the old church
sitting at a friend’s funeral
even the stained glass window
could not keep out your saving light

that night in the hot tent
awakened by gripping fear
holding on desperately
by a rosary counted on fingers

that morning in the chapel
i was sure the door was locked
and i was shut out forever
from the inner sanctuary

that moment when i first knew
the beating of my own heart
was a knocking on the door
to a hidden inner sanctum

every aware moment since
i opened the door to the God
who came and died to show
that death is not the end of Love