Where You Are

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

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

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

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

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

Hearts Surrendered

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

Because I Ask

Because I ask…

You enter my heart at will,
Molding and forming me,
Bringing me to Life.
I feel Your warm Presence
Moving through the chambers
Of the heart of my soul.

Your Precious River of Love
Wells up in me and overflows,
Like warm honey,
Mixed with the nectar of Pure Love;
Moving, like lava,
Engulfing everything in its path
And carrying it in its
Movement of Love.

Nothing can stand against
The awesome power of Your Love:
Pride, pain, bitterness,
Self-centeredness, unforgiveness,
All powerless against Your invited Love.
You move through my Life
Changing everything in Your path,
Purifying it and making it Your own.

Because I ask…

You give and keep giving.
There is no bottom to this
Well of Your Love and tenderness.
There is no retaining wall
As Your Precious Lava of Love
Moves to every gesture,
Every thought, every emotion,
Every ache, every longing;
Moves so tenderly,
Moves so willingly,
Moved to engulf the willing soul
That surrenders
In Your ever-present, ever-willing,
Ever-attentive Heart of Love.

Come to me, Lord, I pray,
As I surrender to You
All I am to Your Sacred Heart of Love
And Your plan for me.
Let me be carried away
In the Lava of Your Love
Succumbing to every movement,
Every whisper, every nudge,
Every touch, every longing,
Every desire of Your Most Precious Heart.

Heart of Love, Most Sacred Heart,
Move in me as day by day
You teach me Your Ways
And engulf me in Your Love
With no desire of escape.

12/17-18/1999

Small Heart

Sensing Your Presence
Like a delicate fragrance in the wind,
My soul moves to You
Like leaves in a gentle breeze,
And my heart seeks to find You.

Gathering my movement to Yourself,
You open the well-springs of my heart
That overflow, rising to meet You,
And my longing pours forth,
So is it consumed
In Your thirsting Heart.

There I am broken
Before Your Majestic Presence,
Crumbled into Your Heart and Your Will
To be consumed as Your bread,
Bread that feeds Your deep hunger for our love.

My heart knows only that it is Yours,
That Your immense Love
Includes a desire for this small heart.
My soul trembles with the knowledge
Of Your need for my smallness
And I give way to Your Will,
Your Grace, Your Majesty, Your Love,
As You take this dust of a heart
And breathe into it Your Life,
Creating it for You alone.

Rest in this heart made for You, my Lord.
Consume me in Your Love
That You may have all You desire
Of this small heart that is all Yours.

7-2-2001

Take All, My Lord

Your Flames softly scour my heart, my Lord,
Preparing a place for You.
Your tender Heart moves upon me
Filling my scoured heart and soul.
Fill me completely, my Lord,
That I may give it all to You!
Sweet, tender Heart of my God,
Flames so tender that lap around my heart,
Come, most precious Heart
With Your love so pure
Nothing can hold it
But must give it away.

Tender piercings of Your Heart’s thorns
You press into my heart
That I may know Your pain
Instead of mine
Which You have already taken
Into Your Heart.
Love Me, think of My Heart
And how I suffer for you,
You press tenderly into my heart.
Feel My love, My pain,
My longing to share all
With your human heart.

Lord, my God, my Beloved,
Press me with Your thorns,
Capture me with the nails that held You
Yet pierce deeper still.
Pierce my heart as deeply as possible
With the love that held You
Bound to the Cross
Of our sins and weaknesses.

To the very depths of my soul
You pierce with Your love,
Your love that sacrifices all.
My very being cries out to You,
Take all, my Lord, take all!
Barely a whisper away,
You rush to take all I give.
Hungering for my heart,
Thirsting for my soul,
You take all that I offer
To my Beloved.

Your Sacred Heart, my precious Lord,
Is all that I desire.
I am consumed in You, my Love,
As Your Holiness moves upon and devours me
As all that was before passes away,
Until all that is left of me
Is You, my Beloved.

7-30-2001

Close To My Heart

Stones shift and fall,
Soon all of me is on the ground again.
Painfully humbling is this ground
And as I search for meaning from the dust
I feel Your hand slip into mine.
Your hand is so strong and steady
While mine is so weak and shaking.
Where am I, my Lord? I ask.

You are here with Me, You whisper.

But I am so vulnerable,
So exposed, so confused,
So in need of all You are.

I know, You console,
And I am here.
Born in a stable,
Crucified on a Cross,
My body has always been close
To those on the ground.
And My Heart is here always.

Your Heart moves upon mine,
Piercing with Thorns so deeply.
Come closer, You invite,
With great longing and gentleness
And my piercing finds its home
In Your Heart.

I am meek and humble of Heart,
Be here with Me in agony and neglect.
To find Me you must come close
To the Cross of humiliation
Where few wish to come.

But I await you here
With open arms; arms surrendered,
Forced open, nailed down,
Yet open still for your tender love.
Love Me here in the dust
As I long for you deeply.
Hold Me close,
Heart against Heart,
Where I will hold you, console you,
As the dust settles,
Close to My Heart.

6-9-2002