Author Archives: Margaret Claire

As The Heart Beats

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The flash of Your grace
Pours through me
Like a flash flood
Overturning every stone,
Washing out every cluttered corner,
Yet igniting the bonfire of Your love.
My heart set free by Your graces
Opens to the flood of Your love
And is overwhelmed by grace.
The river of Your Living Waters
Cannot be contained
And I drown in Your loving Heart,
Willingly captured in its current.

The tide draws in
And in its retreat
I am left in the sand,
Seemingly alone,
Crying out in thirst
For the Waters of Your Life.
Come back for me, I cry out
In grief, in great desire
For the flood of Your grace.
But bread turns to stone,
Water to boulders,
No staff can release
From its dryness.
And I grieve, alone, in silence,
Begging, quietly, for Your return.

Your Sacred Heart opens to me,
Still beating with love for Your people.
I hear in its depths
The rhythm of Your love,
The movement of Your grace.
As the Heart moves in its beat,
The life Blood floods and flows
Through us, Your Body.
Flooding, then the rest
That returns the flood,
And the desert returns.
Flood, rest, flood, rest,
Your Heart so Sacred beats,
Moving Your Precious Blood
To nourish Your Body.

Embrace the resting, as with grace,
You whisper in my soul.
The desert prepares the Way
For the flow of My grace.
Open to its cleansing,
Embrace its emptying,
For in your empty chalice
Will you soon be filled
To overflowing once again
And the Fire of My love
Will burn deeply in your soul.
As the desert inflames
Your longing for Me,
Aching and burning in its depths,
So will your thirst be filled
By the flood of My love,
As My Heart beats,
Touching and filling
The depths of your soul.

3-18-2001

Heart Not Afraid

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Your peace comes upon me
In the midst of chaos.
I walk in Your precious Love,
My heart set apart
From that of the world’s.
You reveal Your Heart to me,
Unveiling Your deep tenderness
To a heart that hungers for You.

Heart of Sorrow, You weep for us.
Heart of torture, You endure beyond,
Trembling in pain, human strength
Long since surrendered.
Burning with raw nerves on fire
From repeated abuse and fresh piercings.
Sweat salts wounds, muscles tear,
Stretching against the nails that hold
Your spent Body to Your Cross.
You struggle for breath
But struggle more for love.

Sacred Heart so tender,
Engulfed in human pain,
You open a Divine Heart so tender,
So perfect, so longing to be loved
By hearts made for You,
Your Heart on fire with tender Love
Seeks a heart not afraid
Of Your passionate Love.

Love that hungers more
The more You are starved.
Love that softens in deepest tenderness
The more You meet cold hearts.
Love that trembles with longing
Searching the crowd for a tender heart
That will come to Your Heart
Not afraid of Your pain,
Not turning away from Your humiliation;
A heart on fire with a longing
For Your Sacred Heart
That cannot be stopped
By the pain of Your Crucifixion
Nor the ugliness of their torturing hearts.

A heart so tender it clings to Your Wounds
With the balm of love,
Absorbing Your pain unto itself,
Tenderly holding it for You, cushioning the blows,
Absorbing all Your pain, Your precious Blood
Like a bandage around Your Heart.

Let me take it all away for You!
Let me cradle Your Crucified Heart in my own.
Though the Cross You ask me to follow,
To surrender to, overwhelms me,
Still the passion I bear for the Heart I follow,
Such sweet precious Wounds borne for me,
So moves my heart to love,
I would take it all if I could! And more, my Lord!
Let me hold Your sorrow and pain in my heart!
Your Heart so crucified, that I love!
Yet so little am I, for so great a Heart!

I will break for you smaller and smaller,
Until I fit in your willing heart.
As you surrender yourself to be broken,
Our hearts find their perfect fit
And we are made new
As two hearts become one,
Broken to the world,
Yet embraced together as one
In deepest, most tender Love.
Blood pours out, mingles,
Losing itself in the other’s.

Pain of one touches another.
Joy of one spills over to the other.
I cannot move without You.
You take me to Your Crucified Heart
And my heart is pierced and consumed,
Surrendered to the Passion
Of Your Perfect Love.

4/14-15/2002

Where You Are

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Cast Your Light on my path, dear Lord,
That I may find You where You are,
Not where I wish You to be.
Take my hand and lead me
That I may not wander away
And lose You for even a moment
Ever again.

My Hand is here; take ahold of it,
For it is what I deeply desire.
My hand is wounded, pierced through, for love.
Will your tender hand join with My Wounded Hand?
Will you not turn away in pain and fear
If I share with you My Heart that suffers still
Or My Body that is wounded still?

When you draw back in fear
I am left so alone, abandoned again,
Hungering for one who would stay
And share intimately the sorrows and pains
Of my tender Heart of Love.
Will you take this Wounded Hand
And share this Wounded Heart?

Do not let go of my hand that is Yours,
For I desire most deeply all You are.
Hold me here tightly with You
In Your joys and Your sorrows, my Beloved.
For it is where I desire to be, always.
In Your Heart that I adore.

7-30-2002

Child Of My Heart

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Child of My Heart, it is I,
The God of your longing,
Moving silently upon your heart.
Your thoughts so often fall upon Me
It arouses My Heart
To seek your embrace.
You can feel My Heart
Overcoming yours,
So tenderly, so quietly.

Like the whisper of the wind
I am upon you.
Yet like the embrace
Of long-separated lovers,
I hold fast to your heart.
As I come upon you,
You stir to meet My Love
As our hearts become one
In the grasp of longed-for love.

Your face, my Beloved,
I see in all I encounter.
The beauty and immensity of Your gifts
Overwhelms me.
Your Heart is there
Beating in the massive, powerful mountains,
Your breath in the breeze through the trees,
Your sweet fragrance is carried on the wind
To stir me to love You every moment,
To always know You are near.
You touch me in the warmth of the sun.
How can I be without You?
For You stir my soul to love You always
And for this Love I surrender all I am.

7/23-24/2002
Yosemite

Heart of Sorrows

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My Beloved Lord,
Heart of Sorrows,
Filled with tender longing,
You ask so humbly for my heart:
Will you take Me to you?
Will you tenderly hold Me
Close to your heart?
Comfort My Sorrow,
Take My sorrowful Heart to yours?
Will you hold Me tenderly close
Even as My thorns hurt?
Even if My Wound inflames yours?

Holding You so close hurts
As Your Sorrow becomes mine,
As Your Wounds become mine.
But as Your most tender of Hearts
Rests so gently in my heart,
A refuge from the pain and
Neglect of the world;
A refuge from betrayals and apathy,
Nowhere else would my heart be
But holding You deeply in my heart,
Immersed in the Sorrow and tenderness
Of Your loving Heart.

3-5-2002

Tender Wounds

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O Heart of Mercy
That captures my soul,
Break open my heart
Sending Your Spirit
Like shivering Fire
Into my soul.

O Wounded Lord,
Your Wounds melt my soul.
They pierce my heart,
Then carry it off into You.
My heart melts down
In the presence of
Your sweetest Wounds
And Your overwhelming desire
For my heart.

The tender strength
Of Your hand upon mine
Touched all that I am.
I gaze upon the deep cavern,
Baring bones, ripping flesh,
That marks where my weakness,
My failures, pierced the hand
Of my precious Beloved Lord.

Love beyond grasp of mind,
Sacrifice firing the furnace
That consumes all;
Tremor of Love that
Shakes my soul.
Heart pressing against heart
Imprints forever
Your Sacrifice of Love
Upon all that I am.

My heart opens to,
My soul embraces
The overcoming Love
Of my Savior.
Softness of Love
Beyond comprehension
Transforms a tortured Body
Into a soft, tender holocaust of Love
On the altar of our hearts.

Your precious Wounds
Press against my soul.
My heart overflows with adoration
As I bend to kiss
The wounded feet of my Master.

Every tender Wound on Your Suffering Body
Churns my heart in its grasp of Love.
My heart a fountain of tender devotion
Longs to love with all I am
The tender, sweet Savior
Whose Heart pours forth in unearthly Love
And so silently, lovingly, sweetly accepts
Each piercing Wound
As if it were the kiss of Love.
So perfect this Savior’s Sacrifice,
His soft surrender in Love
Is seen as weakness
By those who fail to understand
The Love of the Beloved,
The Precious Life in death.

6/6-7/2001

A Love Beyond

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O Precious Heart,
You struggle within,
Unable to contain
Such Divine Love
Within a human Heart.

O Precious eyes
So helpless,
You long and plead
For the hearts
You created to love.

O Face of Perfect Love,
Spattered with Blood,
Smeared with tears,
Bruised and pierced;

Yet so perfect is Your Love
That all pain, all neglect,
All humiliation, all abuse,
Turns not Your Heart
From Your Beloved.

Rolling and heaving in Your Agony,
Your tender human Heart
Can contain no longer
The immensity of Your Divine Love.

O Sacred Heart most pure,
Surrendered in passionate humility,
You burst, annihilated by a Love
Beyond Passion.

Blood and water flow
As the spear of our arrogance
Finds the Heart
Already burst for Love.

Gentle cheek lies against torn shoulder,
So bruised and ripped by scourge and Cross.
Eyes close to the pain of a world
That could not return so pure a Love.

My heart gathers the fragments of Yours
And tenderly cradles its remains within.
O Sacred Heart most pure,
The Blood of Your Sacrificial Love
Soaks into my soul, inebriating me
With the power of Your surrender.

Take my heart, my Lord,
That bleeds with desire for You,
That carries Your surrender deep within.
Let me shelter Your Broken Heart in mine
That calls me to Love beyond
Surrendering to death;
That calls me to Life beyond
The crushing annihilation of the world.

In the Silence of the tomb,
A Life stirs that moves beyond.
The wind of the Spirit moves
Across the coals of total destruction
And a flame leaps up and burns anew,
Fed by a Sacrifice so profound
It fuels a Life beyond,
Consumed in the Flame of Your Eternal Love.

8/14-15/2001

Solitary Path

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My Savior,
It was You who called me
To the crossroads.
Blinded with pain,
The fog of confusion surrounded me,
Yet I knew where I was.

I knew where You wanted me,
Though it cut through my heart
Like a knife.
I knew I could not turn away from You
Or what You were calling me to.

There at the crossroads,
The fresh pain of betrayal,
The emptiness of abandonment
Were upon me,
Yet my heart knew its anchor
And that it could not turn from You
And betray and abandon You.

The choice was clear and complete.
I would walk with You, my Savior,
Away from the crowd
Along the solitary path
Where You and I abide,
Silently speaking,
Touchlessly touching.

I walk the path of solitude
That sometimes crushes me,
Yet sometimes leads me
Into Your embrace.
You pick up the pieces
Of my shredded heart
Again and again.
You know so well
How to suffer alone.

Suffering Heart,
I cannot stop this pain of isolation
That cuts so deeply into my heart.
Yet I cannot stop the love
That brought me here
Through the crossroads.

Teach me, my Lord,
How to endure this exile.
Teach me the silent surrender
Of Your Suffering Heart.
As the solitary path
Carves its canyons into my soul
Where at times only my voice
Seems to echo back,
Whisper Your Presence in the wind
That reminds me of the Sacred Heart
That drew me here,
Away from all others,
Emptied and waiting
For You, O Sacred Heart,
The Heart I walk this path to meet
And embrace.

7/17-19/2001

Hearts Surrendered

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Beloved, You come
As a ray of Light
Into my soul
That waits for only You.

Your strong hand
Lifts my heart to You
As my heart that anticipates
Your every move
Melts into Your Will,
Surrendering completely
To all You want of me.

Your Spirit breathes upon me
And like long grass in a field,
My soul moves gently and easily
To Your every movement upon me,
Thrilling to every breath, every Word
From Your Heart of Love.

You move so deeply
Into the very core of my soul.
Gathering all to Your Heart,
Making all I am,
Like a faithful spouse,
Responsive to Your every move,
Waiting upon Your every Word,
Listening for every breath,
Softening easily
Into Your arms of Love.

Your Voice moves my soul
Like gentle thunder
As You call me to be Yours.
Let go completely
And be all Mine,
You vibrate through
My willing heart.

This is My wedding feast,
I hear You whisper
As Your Heart consumes mine
And our mutual hungers
Are filled
In hearts surrendered
To Perfect Love.

6-29-2001