The Alone

Staring the darkness...
the depths of "the alone"
staring back at me.

Feeling the distance...
the impending loneliness -
I turn back to You.

To You, LORD -
The Alone.
---<--@

There are two kinds of solitude. Only one is real.

Reflection:

There are times when one feels incredibly lonely and I believe those are the times it is good to have a strong sense of solitude.

Because to me, a sense of solitude is not a sense of being alone.

Just as a tree is not alone in a forest of trees, a soul that realizes that it is a soul realizing it is a soul is a soul with a spirit of solitude - who - in knowing it stands alone have likewise found it can never be alone.

Fact is, it is in rote similarity that one feels most lonely.

For it is not in the richness of our diversity that the fear of the "other" flourish but in the seasonless existence wrought by the cowardice of an unthinking mind.

Love of Purity

Love of purity

is the gain of chastity,

a freedom within.

Strength in modesty,

comes from a love deep within -

respecting others.

Chastity is this -

t'is a love, first and foremost,

a freedom within!

T'is a freedom - kind -

a return to innocence,

and right relations.

T'is a release - from -

the bondage of the body;

a joy in the soul.

T'is a release - sweet -

yet difficult, and God-filled;

severe is the test.

T'is a release - gained -

through prayer's battle, through faith,

by grace, and good effort.

T'is a release - from -

the horror of slavery

from sins to recoil.

It's fruits are sweetest

when love draws you the nearest

to God and heaven.

It is not prudish

sullen, awkward, or ugly.

It is beautiful.

---<--@

Said the Angel -

Single Not Alone

If you're the reason

I'm single, my darlingest -

then let it be so...

But let God bless me

with sweetness of purity

forever with you.

Then let us

live to serve.

---<--@

My Prayer for my Anne -

O Father of mercy and of love, in the deepest, darkest depths of despair, You have blessed me with a special friendship. The very first star in the firmament of the darkest night of my life.

You gave me Annelies Marie Frank, O Lord, as a light against despair. The first glimmer of hope that leads to faith in things everlasting and unseen.

Loving Father, thank you so much for blessing me with a friend as precious as Anne. Grant me, O Lord, I humbly pray, with the love to cherish her now and forever.

AMEN.

Being Single

Now, the married state

being the call of many

seems the call of all.

But being single

being the call of the few

is seen not at all.

If single -

pray, fear not.

---<--@

If you are single like me, you should know that no amount of planning or anxiety can replace trust.

Once upon a time, I thought that the object of the single life is to get married. But this is just not so.

The object of any mature human life, whether single or married, priestly, religious or civic, is to find your own particular vocation to serve.

So pray, trust and fear not - one can not decide to get married by one's self alone.

"...a prudent wife is from the LORD." (Proverbs 19: 14)

Consider this thoughtfully -

This seems to suggest that a particular state of life is superior to the other. There are indeed people who become bitter for their being single!

But which state of life is really superior - the single life or the married life?

It really depends on how well you discern your own particular vocation to serve.

The object of life is not marriage. It is happiness.

Solitude

In my solitude -

I slept. And I dreamed our dream

and I longed for you.

In my loneliness -

I found. And I dreamed our dream

and I was with you.

I have you,

yet I don't.

---<--@

I love you.