PRAYER POEMS FOR "THE PASSION"
SECTION 2

The Lamb Approaches

The Lamb approaches,
Pure of Heart, unspoiled,
Full of Hope,
Seeking Love.
 
The Lamb approaches,
Unwilling to close His Heart,
He takes His chances,
Seeking Love.
 
The Lamb approaches
Closer still,
His softness inviting our touch,
His sweetness inviting our embrace,
His gentleness softening our hearts.
As He searches deep into our hearts
With His soft eyes of Love,
Do we embrace Him Drawing Him closer still
Or do we turn away
Leaving Him alone, unloved?
Do we carry Him into our hearts
Setting Him on the Throne of Love
Or do we cast Him out
Leaving Him alone on the Altar of Sacrifice?
 
This lamb, so Perfect,
Inflames love in the pure of heart,
Inflames hate in the dark of heart.
There is no middle ground
To His embrace.
To ignore His approach,
To refuse His loving advance,
Is to crucify Him in our hearts
As His soft eyes of love
Turn away, gripped in pain,
Broken in Heart,
Alone, abandoned, cut down,
Slaughtered in His
Most loving, most soft,
Most sweet, most Sacred Heart.
 
Come to us, O Sacred Heart of the Lamb,
And let us embrace Your sweetness,
Let us absorb Your Precious Love,
Moving our hearts,
Healing our souls,
As the Lamb becomes the Shepherd
Leading our wandering hearts home.
 

I Am, Speaks Love

You are dragged before us like a criminal.
You, Lord of Life, Savior God;
You, “trouble maker,” radical for Love.
Your Words push us past the comfort zone.
Your actions convict us causing discomfort and shame.
Shame is not a feeling we live with well
And forgiveness we seldom understand.
 
You stand in Truth, You stand in Love.
You show us the Way, but Your Way
Is not on our maps.
 
With their power given from above
Your judges look You in the eyes and ask:
“Are You the Son of the Living God?”
Before them stands the Truth Incarnate
And they wait for You to lie
To save Your human life
When before them stands Life itself!
Yet more blind than the blind men you healed
Are they who say they can see.
More guilty for they lead the innocent
To their blindness.
 
“Are You the Son of God?” they repeat,
Your Silence deafening.
 
“I AM,” Truth speaks,softly,
Echoing through the Words of Prophets
And resonating with the Words of Yahweh
From the Holy Mountain:
“I AM THAT I AM.”
He speaks, our God, our Truth,
And all who seek the Truth hear His voice.
 
“I AM,” echoes in our chambers,
Shattering all doubt,
Absorbed by hearts of Truth,
Repelled by hearts of darkness,
Coming to rest, like a Dove,
In the minds and hearts of people of faith.
 
The sound of the High Priest’s robes tearing
Jars any peace remaining,
Ripping apart the heart and soul
Of Your Presence in our temples.
 
Your eyes of Love follow Your people
As they wrestle with darkness.
“Choose me,” they seem to say;
“Choose Life.”
Human tears well up in Your Divine Eyes
As Your gaze falls on the undecided ones.
“Come to me,” Your Heart cries.
“Choose My Love and live with Me forever.
It is I, You loving God!”
But the undecided fear and turn away
Choosing the gray that turns to darkness
Over the Light of Truth.
 
Your Heart, the center of Your Church,
Is ripped out and cast aside,
The stone rejected.
Dragged through the streets
Into the arena of the secular world,
We place You before them
Then abandon You in fear.
Your Sacred Heart, so overflowing,
Stands alone, crying out for Love.
Already pierced in Your Heart,
A million times and more,
By our turning away from
Your Heart of Love.
 
You stand alone, O Heart of Love,
Breaking for us,
Pouring out Your Blood of Redemption
To a world untouched.
Let our hearts run to Yours, O Lord,
And fill us with Your Love You ache to share.
Let Your Blood of Redemption
Surge through our hearts into our souls
Becoming rivers of love
Touching all who thirst for You.

 
Crown of Thorns

Crown of thorns
Piercing through to the skull,
Every movement piercing deeper still,
Shooting pain to all parts of You,
Reminder of the Sacred Head
That should be adorned with
Our greatest gifts, our most adoring love,
Is instead pierced with the agony
Of humiliation and ridicule.
 
Your eyes close, too painful to open,
As Your Precious Blood flows,
Blinding You, stinging Your eyes.
Close Your eyes, dear Lord,
To our ignorance,
To our arrogance,
To our blindness.
 

Let us gently bathe Your face
With the waters of our repentance.
Let us tenderly remove each thorn
By our acts of deep sacrificial love.
Let us soothe each wound
With the kiss of our hearts
Given completely over to You.
Let us tenderly love You back
Until the day when Your Heart moves
With the joy of love returned
And Your eyes open again
To our hearts on fire for Your Love.
 

Drawn to Your Cross
 
As I approach You,
Slowly bringing myself
Into Your Presence,
I see You trembling,
Shaking with pain.
You gasp for breath,
Your brow dripping with Blood,
Your Body a mass of
Bruises and torn flesh.
 
I want to meet Your eyes
But I am afraid.
How can my human heart endure
The pain I see in Your face?
 
You are so Holy.
You are so Pure.Your Sacred Heart bursting with love
Slowly loses it’s beat
And soon will be still.
 
Your eyes raise to meet mine
As You are gasping Your last breaths.
How can I look away?
There, as You struggle with Your
last moments of life,
I meet Your eyes.
Your trembling becomes mine
As I gaze into Your eyes of Eternal Love.
Melting within, I tremble, I fall,
Robbed of strength to resist.
 
In Your eyes, a landscape of love
Spreads before me leading to
Your Sacred Heart,
The Eternal City,
Full of Light with no shadows,
Flowing with sweetness like honey.
For a moment I forget
The pain and trembling and gasping,
Lost in Your Love and Sweetness.
 
Then Your eyelids flutter closed.
“No!” I scream. “Not this! Not now! Please!”
Your Sacred Head drops to Your shoulder.
I reach out to You
As Life drains from Your Body.
It slumps, tearing your numb flesh.
My heart bursts at this site!
“Please let me love You back to life!” I cry.
 
Darkness gathers, the earth shakes.
Disoriented, I stumble at Your feet.
I reach out to touch Your lifeless Body.
Your Blood on my hands,
I bury myself in You.
Forgive me, Lord, my soul cries out!
 
Remembering Your promises,
My heart grows still.
 
Forgive me, Lord, I breath.
Strengthen me, Lord, I sigh.
Cleanse me, Lord, I weep.
 
Let me love You, Lord,
Until Your pain is gone.
 
And then raise me with You
On the Last Day.
 

The Trial of Light
 
Silence surrounds You;
Like a deep forest, drinking in scattered sound,
You draw all to Yourself without a word.
Your soft eyes speak only Love,
A love so deep no man comprehends,
Yet every man craves.
Looking into these eyes
One is drawn into eternity
And either wants to stay here
Or turn away.
 
Silent You stand before Your accusers.
Your Heart pours forth Your Love even then.
Disarmed by Your grace,
Confused by Your love,
They look for the way out
Avoiding Your eyes and
Ignoring Your Heart.
Silent in speech but screaming in Heart,
Every moment You cry out in love
For even those calling for Your death.
 
Your Heart is so pure, so sacred
That no one can approach its grace
Without calling You King.
King it is, Your awesome offense.
King of Kings, Lord of Lords.
Unable to stand in Your Perfect Presence unconvicted,
We are reminded of our weaknesses;
Our clouded reflection dims, then darkens
Next to Your Perfect Light.
 
Truth before us,
Love surrounds us,
Grace warms us,
We bow before You,
Captured by Your Love.
 
But those of dark hearts
Turn away from Your brilliance
As the darkness comprehends not the Light.
So the dark of heart call
For the Light to be extinguished.
Send Him away!
Whip some sense into Him, they cry,
Hoping the anger of injustice
Would dim those eyes of Love.
 
As Your Body is slashed,
Your Precious Blood released,
They are so shaken by the release
Of Your Redeeming Blood
That they must crown You King with thorns
And make a mockery of the Truth
To hide their trembling hearts.
 
Still Your Silence,
Still Your eyes, a window
Into Your Sacred Heart.
Confused by the power of Your Truth,
They flex the muscles of worldly power.
Unmoved, You defy the power in dark hearts.
 
Handing You over to the fear of the people
Assured that ignorance would seal Your fate,
They wash their hands of Your Blood.
Yet it was only Your Precious Blood
That could wash them clean.
 
We are safe now in our shadows, we think.
As we lift the Cross to Your shoulders
We watch You struggle down the path to death
With our sins on Your back.
The darkness follows, jumping on Your back,
Pounding You down,
Delighting in Your pain.
 

The darkness You carry, now bound to You,
Dies with Your silent death;
The power of the world is broken
As Your Body breaks,
A sacrifice of Pure Love;
Darkness cannot survive
In the Presence of Pure, Sacrificial Love
But dies as the night with the dawning,
The rising of the Light.