PRAYER POEMS FOR "HEART'S PRESENCE"
SECTION 4

Heart's Longing

Cold settled into the corners, like the darkness,
Only broken by the single sanctuary lamp,
The only company for Your Majestic Presence;
The only warmth for Your Flame of Love.

Silence surrounds You as You wait,
Echoing in the expanse of the dark church.
In the distance occasional sounds of cars and voices,
The sole evidence of Your loved ones,
Floats through the quiet darkness,
Torturing You with its nearness in body
Yet worlds away in heart and thought.

As I enter, approaching You,
Your Sacred Heart calls to me in the Silence.
Our hearts meet in mutual longing.
All day I have been missing Your Presence.
All day You have been missing mine.

In quiet solitude You pour Your graces
Upon me before I ask.
I pour out my heart to You in return.
Loving You is so easy.
What more willing love could there be?
I already know You would live for me.
I already know You died for me.
How could I not live for You?
How could I not die
To the world of darkness and isolation
To be born into Your world
Of Life and Light and Love eternal.

There our hearts are one.
Your lonely Heart reaches for my longing.
My lonely heart fills with Your Love.
Here in a world apart,
Eternity touches peaceful hearts,
As time is lost and space becomes meaningless.
Here I stay lost in You...

Your silent whisper in my heart
Returns my thoughts from the place
Where they have rested in You.
My heart whispers, may I stay here?
Your Spirit stirs my soul's answer.
If I must go, may I take You with me
That You will not be left alone in the darkness again?
And I will not leave alone without You?

As I bow to You and slowly leave Your Presence,
Our hearts meet again, longingly,
From the distance in the darkened church.
If I must go, I will leave my heart with You,
My heart calls.
As You go I pour My Heart into yours,
You return.
Your Heart in me, my heart in You,
We part.

Your Own

At Your feet I sit,
Listening, watching;
Every word, every movement
Filling my heart,
Binding my soul to you.

Your magnet of Love is so strong
My eyes can only see You,
My ears only hear Your voice,
My mind moves to Your thoughts,
My heart clings to Your Love.

Your gaze upon me melts my soul.
No resistance can I give to Your pure, Sacred Heart.
You shower Your graces upon me:
Joy is my food,
Love is my drink
In Your feast of Life.
At the feet of my master
In the glow of Your Heart,
I am your ember
In Your bonfire of Love.

All I am I offer
To Your waiting hands, Your willing Heart.
So tenderly You surround me and
Take me as Your own.


Wisdom of Heart

Dear Sacred Heart of my Lord,
How do I express how I sense You?
This Love, Your Love, so dense,
It becomes substance,
Taking form in my heart.
How does our intellect comprehend
What our hearts feel and know?
When confronted with Your Reality
Our minds sometimes shut down.
The unexplainable, incomprehensible
Becomes trivialized or rejected.
Such Majesty and yet intimacy
Overloads our minds.

Yet, there is another path,
A path in the heart.
The heart knows
What the mind cannot grasp.
Within the secret chambers of the heart
Lies a Love that knows no limits,
Lies an intimacy unknown
To human hearts alone,
Lies a treasure beyond words
Available only in the heart
Of one who loves with his life.
Your Love, O Lord,
So deep, so dense, so concrete,
It took on human form,
It took on a human heart,
It took on our human weaknesses
To be cleansed
In Your Divine yet human Blood
Springing from Your human yet Divine Heart.

How do our minds comprehend such things?
How do our minds comprehend forgiveness?
How do our minds comprehend death to bring Life?

Only in Communion with the Heart of the Eternal
Is there knowledge of such Love,
Does it take form and reside in a human heart
Bringing the Divine to one who loves Him.

What does it profit a man
To comprehend the human world
Yet lose knowing the Divine?

Reside in me, O Lord,
O Light of Wisdom,
O Heart of Love,
And I in You,
That in our Communion of our Hearts
May come Communion in the Eternal.

The Touch of Your Love
As the presence of the Beloved,
Even amidst chaos, tragedy or pain,
Can give comfort, can give strength,
In just a hand being held
Or a simple touch
Of one against the other,
So is Your Presence dear to me
Amidst the chaos and clatter.
Just being with You, O Sacred Heart,
Leaning near to You, my Beloved,
In Your Eucharistic Presence,
Fills me, heals me, touches me
Deeply with Your Love,
A Love that is so quickly given
And so willingly received,
Moving this heart
To an unspeakable sense
Of the Precious touch
Of Your Love,
O Pure, O Sacred
Heart of Love.

Substance of the Heart

Dear Sweet Jesus,
Arms outstretched on that Cross,
They speak of a love so complete,
It encompasses all the world,
Of all times, in Your Divine Mercy,
Stretched out, nailed down,
Forever frozen in Your gesture of love.
Yet I see in Your arms
A precious open invitation,
A longing for an embrace,
Opening up to us Your Sacred Heart.
Your arms opened wide
Beg for our love.
Silently, in the stillness of Eternity,
You wait, hoping for a return
Of Your Love that gave all.
Your tender Heart,
Your loving arms,
Your hands wounded,
Yet healing still,
All wait, silently begging our love.

Your Eucharistic Presence enlivens our hearts.
Yet are they enlivened for You?
Or enlivened for our own needs?

Your Presence on this altar
Moves me.
The arms of my heart burst forth,
Reaching for You.
Hearts embrace,
Drawn together in Your Spirit of Love.
You are there for as long as I desire.

Hearts mingling,
You fill my soul.
Hearts mingling,
My love desires You completely
And in that longing
Your Heart bleeds into mine.
Precious Blood of a love so tender,
Bleeding not in pain, for once,
But in the sweetness, indescribable,
Of a love so touched, so tender,
Your Heart bleeds forth
It's very contents,
Catching my heart and soul
Forever in the moving substance
Of this Perfect Love.
Caught in this embrace,
In the substance of Your Love,
I am trapped in Your Heart
Like sweet tar.
Unable, unwilling to resist,
My heart forever caught in Yours,
offers no resistance
To Your takeover of my heart.

As Your sweet substance fills my heart,
It is Yours completely, filled,
A reservoir of Your tender Love.
Fill me, sweet Substance of Love,
That we may together
Carry Your Love,
Your Sacred Heart,
Among Your people.

Quiet Heart

A still Heart
Burns silently within.
Its quiet passion,
Its dynamic stillness
Moves so gently and quietly
Into the listening heart,
Yet hovers ready, encircling
The hard and cold heart:
Its warmth softening,
Its Truth revealing,
Its Love stirring,
A Love so silently enlivening
Resistance is overcome,
Gently surrendering
To a fuller communion
With this gentle Heart of Love,
Lord of Life.

Touch of reckless abandonment,
Softly creeping like a sleeping child's breath,
No walls hold back,
No strings attach
To the silent avalanche of Your Love
Waking from slumber
The hearts made for You,
Stirring in them a desire
For something more.
For You, O Heart of Infinite Treasures,
For You, O Sacred Heart of hearts,
For You, O Firestorm of Love.
You overcome my heart with Your silent calling
Until I give in to Your passionately ceaseless Love,
O Keeper of my heart and soul.