Order My Private World

Propelled by the winds of my times
my inner world whirls with unrest
as I am driven by impulse and pressed.
The visible, the temporal, pulls at my spirit
commitments and duty wrestle me to the ground
disintegrating my spiritual understanding
clouding my perception of God's will.

If my private world is askew
without order and balance
Lord! I can 't hear You!

Not in the whirlwind of my life
not in the earthquake of circumstance
nor in the thunder of my activities
not in the lightning of my urgencies
nor in the fire of iny passions
for accomplishment and success
but in my ordered world
within the hidden chamber of my heart
my secret garden
my innermost place of rest
where Christ abides and graciously beckons me
can I sense His peace and direction
as 1 listen without the maelstrom of stress
and tension of my outward burdens
to His still, small voice.

Only when 1 sup with Him
privately, intimately
as He breaks the Bread
to nourish me so tenderly
can I confidently face the public day ahead.

---by Leona Choy

In the house of God there is never-ending festival;
the angel choir makes eternal holiday, the presence
of God's face gives joy that never fails. And from
that everlasting, perpetual festivity there sounds
in the ears of the heart a strain, mysterious, melodious,
sweet-provided the world does not drown it out.
St. Augustine. From Patrologia Latina