Category: Poems

“whatever you do
be gentle with yourself.
you don’t just live
in this world
or your home
or your skin.
you also live
in someone’s eyes.”
-Sanober Khan

Behold, you are beautiful, my love.
Behold, you are beautiful.
Your eyes are like doves.
-Song of Solomon 1, WEBBE

BEAUTIFUL YOU

You must learn
To love yourself
If you can’t love you for you
I hope that you
Can love you for me

If you say you love me
If you really feel you do,
Then give me you
Give me all of you
The worst and
The best of you.

See how I see you
Believe how
I treasure you
And how I want you
From the very core
Of who you are.

I am not asking you to change
Or to give up anything
If it would destroy you,
Beautiful you.

If you must change,
If you must give anything,
Do it because you want
To spread your wings
And soar,
Because it would help
Make you
Even more beautiful
Than before.

Then I couldn’t be happier
I couldn’t be more joyous in love,
For my happiness is
To see you happy
And my life
Is to live
Knowing you have become
The very best
Of who you are!

“Dare to be glowing saints, in whose eyes and hearts the love of Christ beams and who thus bring light to the world.” – Pope Benedict XVI

You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 5, WEBBE

THE WORLD NEEDS SAINTS

What does the world need right now?

We need more saints who are not afraid,
saints who are not afraid to speak the truth
where truth is needed,
saints who are not afraid to give
even their very lives
for the sake of compassion
for those who are lost,
saints who are not so easily disheartened
with the evil that they see,
knowing that it is God
who will have the final say
and God’s will
shall always prevail.

What does the world need right now?

We need more saints who are merciful,
saints who will not so easily judge
or cast away or condemn,
saints who know suffering
and who can honor the pain of those who hurt,
saints who can understand grief,
who can understand loss,
who know how it is to be empty
and poor and forgotten,
to be without love
just when you need it most.

What does the world need right now?

We need more saints who are humble,
saints who are not always concerned
about themselves,
for they know that God is
already concerned about them;
saints who know the truth,
who know their own misery and lowliness
before the perfection and purity of God;
saints who boast not of their own righteousness,
knowing that every good thing that they may have
comes from God only, comes only from His love.

What does the world need right now?

We need more saints who are lovers,
saints who are not only concerned
with fulfilling the commandments or avoiding sin,
saints who are more like Good Samaritans,
willing to go out of their way,
so they can help those in need;
saints who have seen God’s Face
and who bear His image
for all the world to see.

For this is indeed, what the world needs right now,
saints who have seen Him,
saints who let Him live within them,
ready to give as He gives,
to live as He lives,
to love as He has always loved!

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks [with] compassion on this world. Yours are feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” – St. Teresa of Avila

There’s a certain kind of beauty in the works of God. We recognize it when we see it. We know that something has come from God.

There is in it both grandeur and a certain kind of simplicity. It is unique but it is never out of place. There is modesty, there is space, there is rhythm. There is nothing forced about it. Nothing that is superfluous. Nothing that is without purpose or better end.

The beauty of His works proclaim His glory. It proclaims His power and His generosity.

But it also reflects His tenderness and humility. It shows us He cares for the little things as much as He cares for the great ones.

There is not a tiny detail to life that God has ever forgotten. There is not one stroke of His works that is done without love.

God did not invent death, and when living creatures die, it gives him no pleasure. He created everything so that it might continue to exist, and everything he created is wholesome and good. There is no deadly poison in them. No, death does not rule this world, for God’s justice does not die. -Wisdom 1, GNT

THERE ARE NO SQUARE STARS

Come to think of it, when have you ever seen the following?

A square leaf
A square fruit
A square tree
A square raindrop

Coming to think of it, nature, unlike man, does not produce

Square moons
Square suns
Square planets
Or square galaxies

There are no square rainbows
Nor square flowers
Nor square heads
that could fit inside a square box

Yet more often than not, that’s exactly what we do.

We try to put everything inside a box
We try to make all things black and white
We try to make everything spic and span
as though we could put a square peg inside a round hole
and then congratulate ourselves for the feat we have done

Since the dawn of man-made technology,
we have certainly lived in a world of squares:

square houses
square buildings
square computer screens

We write on square papers using square tables
We sleep on square beds and enter upon square doors

Where has all these taken us?

These square things have made a war with our own hearts
And against all mysteries that enrich and empower us

The next time someone tries to put your immortal soul inside a small box

Kindly remind yourself:
There are no square stars in the Universe.

“A God who became so small could only be mercy and love” – St. Therese of Lisieux

This Is Christmas

God could have come in all His glory,
with trumpets and angels and all,
blazing like fire,
dazzling like lightning
as terrible as the raging of the seas!

But on that Christmas Eve,
He came as a newborn child,
small and gentle,
humble and innocent
as harmless as a dove.

Why He came like this
I didn’t know,
until I looked at my own fears
and wounds.

How could I have come to Him
had I been so afraid?
How could I have even
looked at His face?

But as that babe,
I could cradle Him in my arms,
I could whisper to Him my heart’s desires
I could look upon His eyes
without being judged
without being cast away.

And I love Him more
because He chose to come that way.
Because though He came for the whole world,
He also came for me,
and He knew me,
He knew how I longed to be loved.

But more than loving me,
He allowed me to love Him
and to care for Him,
to carry Him
even though He is actually the One
who carries me.

This is Christmas
This is Holy Night.
In that simple stable
silent and small,
I was saved,
I was healed,
I have been found.

For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 9, DRA

“Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we got to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from Heaven, at our very door.” – Tryon Edwards

When Happiness Flew

I found happiness once
It gave me so much life
that I never wanted it to depart.

So I tried to keep it in a drawer
I had it under lock and key
until the day I opened the drawer
and found that happiness
wasn’t anymore there for me.

I cried so hard when I lost it,
until the day when I found it again.
Happiness looked almost the same
yet a bit different
as it called my name.

It warned me never to keep it,
that if I wanted it back,
I have to let it go.

I was tempted to capture it again,
but then I remembered my drawer
and so I watched
as happiness flew.

I thought I’ve lost it for good,
but it came back from day to day,
always the same, yet always different
ever old but ever new.

I wasn’t afraid anymore,
and I knew I would never lose it again
because since I let it go,
happiness returned and became my friend.

By the river on its bank, on this side and on that side, will grow every tree for food, whose leaf won’t wither, neither will its fruit fail. It will produce new fruit every month, because its waters issue out of the sanctuary. Its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for healing. – Ezekiel 47, WEBBE