The Great King's Shadow

Rages that terrible battle, in deep

darkness, deceit, disdain, Divine 

Obedience cries remain as

Rises undeterred the Shepherd's' Shadow 

whose splendor unseen 

Save under clouds of grace and glance as

Gains the dawn, this Day without End.

Though hard fought, costing 

cruel crown and cross, crushed

obedience, hell's cacophony is silenced by Word's

Weakness ablaze in Uncreated Fire

And still the Lamb's concealing shade covers 

Hidden hearts once dead, now 

Born again, this Day without End.

Who rules Day and Night in power

Perfected? O Prince of Peace, 

obedient praise of glory, worthy Lamb!  

You reign by faith's secret. That hope invincible 

unmasks scheme's smirk, causes crowns cast down, all under 

that Mighty Shadow once slain, 

Alive again, this Day without End.

Deep Down Mercy

Off the edge of inadequacy, into that void,

I searched for Him

Who would vindicate and rebuild

What I destroyed.

Into the deep, that step

sliding down ravines of misery, abyss

swallowing, flooding torrents of chaos, self

Vanishing under waves of euphoric delusion and

Dreams dashed dead on reality's rocks -

Such shell shocked emptiness, entombed

All else in that ache for Him.

Deeper still I traversed crawling

those pathways unknown to unaided eye

To chance upon, to stumble into, to discover

that wall, that rampart, that impenetrable frontier

that no evil passes beyond -

O Boundary in which misery meets its limits!

O Circumscribing Periphery of Hope!

In that glance of goodness, making all things new

Such splendors as evoke awe,

radiant harmonies through all troubles shining,

In that Sun rising where spews alive -

Currents from deeper down bottomlessness

No one knew moved with such un-vanquished force.

St. Elisabeth of the Trinity: that praise of glory

What glory this fiery creature bears 

In the bottom of that bottomless Abyss

A radiance, not her own, but in her radiant being!

She knows well that secret cellar

Where unseen the Furnace of Love humbly 

envelops and begins boldly her own loving flame:

Nature's unaided eye cannot see - nescivi! -

As she passes into such ineffable Solitude, 

Communion, Silence, Consuming, Consumed 

of deep buried Three-ness and overflowing One-ness 

Whose splendors evoke such praise!  

Those celestial canticles, unheard hymns

resonate on such delicately touched lyre strings  

with the Spirit incarnating, Father over-shadowing, enfleshed Light 

whose love rebuilds, saves, sanctifies 

What we destroyed.

But beckons she her friends with what wisdom 

Wading into those depths 

with fearless abandon

To sail, to plunge, to remain, to surrender  

With her, that prey, 

that communion of hearts, 

That praise of glory! 

(Thank you Kris McGregor and Discerning Hearts for providing a platform for St. Elisabeth of the Trinity's spiritual mission... And thank you for this beautiful video!)

The Heart of the Church

Much attention is rightfully rendered to the Head of the Church - Christ. But we need to ask, is the Head really the most important member of the Church? Indeed, the only devotion to "the Head" we have as Catholics is that "Sacred Head surrounded by crown of piercing thorns." What makes this devotion so beautiful is that the thorn-pierced Head suffered humiliation for no other reason than to keep the Heart of the Church above reproach. Christ sees His Bride as more important than life itself, and the Head oversees only that the Heart might thrive. The Heart, this gives life to the whole mystical Body - it is the place of encounter between God and man, the deep center from which spring all that is good and noble in holy humanity.  The Heart is the place of contemplation - where the love gaze of Christ is sketched into the very substance of humanity. It is the place from which alone acceptable sacrifice is offered to the Father. Every time we make the sign of the Cross, the heart is at its center as a reminder of this truth. Likewise, it is for the Heart that anyone who exercises authority as Head of the Church must act - or betray Him who bestowed the authority and power he has. For it was to make her holy and immaculate that Christ offered Himself on the Cross - and any power and authority he permits others to share must only serve this same purpose. For this reason, those great women mystics who help us hear the deep things of the heart of the Church may well be more worthwhile to heed than those who blather about their own  importance with reckless regard for why they have been granted such a treasure.  

Receiving the Word in Affliction and Joy

St. Paul calls believers of Thessalonica "imitators of the Lord" who received the Word in "affliction" and "the joy of the Holy Spirit."   To imitate is to repeat what another has done. When imitation is made of another out of love, it reveals a beautiful devotion.  So one friend imitates the virtues of another because he admires her, and a spouse reveals a deep devotion to her beloved when she attempts to make him feel the love that she has felt from him. Thus, does marriage reveal the Great Mystery.

In the case of the Bridegroom of the Church, He has loved us to the end. He who is Love Himself was hated for our sake. To rescue us from a world dying in its own lies and myths, He suffered the truth of God's love for us and dared to reveal it no matter the cost. With patience, His loving obedience bore away sin until death itself was overcome. How can a believer show his devotion to such a Lover other than to love Him in kind? 

This is what St. Paul praises when he singles out believers for receiving the Word in affliction. In welcoming the Word of the Father while they are under trial, they imitate the One whom they love. They suffer the Truth -- for no one can know the Truth until they suffer it in their own life, in the depths of their heart. Only to the degree that we suffer the truth in our hearts do we possess it. Those who believe in the Word suffer this Truth even as they make their way through the work-a-day world as a sign of contradiction - and thus, they too are hated even to the point of sharing in His salvific work.

Holy Spirit, who makes this imitation of Christ possible, gives them joy.  The Word connects present afflictions and the Gift of the Holy Spirit. The greater an affliction is born with love filled faith, the more completely the Word is received, and the greater that joy which the Holy Spirit produces in the heart. 

He who is the True Life permits us to undergo afflictions only so that we might turn to Him and welcome Him as the Beloved of the Father.  As we welcome this Life more deeply into the heart, this Word made flesh speaks with the power of the Holy Spirit and floods our innermost being with unexpected and inexhaustible riches. His Light shines into the most secret depths, and through the power of the Holy Spirit He fills with love abysses that we do not know are there. Indeed, only affliction can open up such depths to these life-giving riches - so did Christ Crucified suffer for us and so does this Risen Lord suffer with us, and so we never suffer alone. Here we find the secret of a joy that the Holy Spirit knows between the Father and the Son - and wherever the Word communicates His riches, the Fire of the Holy Spirit ignites our joy.