Easy to Love

Lord, loving You, You make it easy to,
You’re not just anywhere, You’re everywhere,
I find it easy to keep loving You
because You’re not just there, You’re always there.

It’s easy to love One Who’s made of love,
for You are love itself, You make love flower,
the mightiest One Who rules all from above
with loving mercy shown with loving power.

To use Your power to love is such a joy,
when like Your love, this power we embrace,
though You may have the power to destroy,
You choose to give to us Your loving grace.

So let us always love You, Lord, with ease,
for You’re indeed an easy God to please.

                   by Pete Voelz      11/30/13

Pulse of Love

I feel my heart beat with a pulse of love,
but I don’t, Lord, just love You with my heart,
each breath I take, each thought I’m thinking of,
I love You, and with every other part.

I love with every part because You’re there,
Your loving presence, oh, so wonderful,
in me can’t both our loves be everywhere,
could it be normal what’s a miracle?

For You here it’s the way You have commanded,
with all my heart and mind and strength and soul,
yet somehow I desire my love expanded
beyond the common human loving role.

Let me pulse love before, beside, behind,
more than I can, Lord,--eager, fierce and kind.

                        by Pete Voelz      11/29/13

Say to Hear

What can I say, Lord, that You want to hear--
to say: "I want more You and less of me,"
to say: "Thy will be done" without much fear,
to say: "You first!" with real humility?

You'll hear me say and pray the prayer You said,
and that my life and death I offer You,
and bleed for You the way for me You bled,
and offer You all I think, say and do.

I'll say thanks to my Audience of One,
I'll say I'm truly sorry when I sin,
and prove the faith I say by deeds I've done,
and have the hope that heaven will help me win.

I know what more You want to hear me say:
"O Lord, I love You here and now today."

                     -- by Pete Voelz          9/10

The Space Between

I see how far I am from God,
too far for me to see;
I sense the silent sounds of space,
too vast for sound to be,
and only faith can fill the gap
between Great God and me.

I feel the barreness of life
and so I wonder why;
I look inside my lonely self
and there is only I,
and only hope to rescue me
against the empty sky.

I know God gives a million gifts
to show that He is near;
He will provide me plenty there
as He provides me here,
for only love can bring me joy
and wipe away my fear.

I do believe the infinite God
is greater than the sea;
we two can pierce the world's facade
to join so spiritually,
for only grace can fill the space
between my God and me.

-- by Pete Voelz  

Shot Through God

My body, Lord, is so shot through with You,
Your Providence controls each molecule,
with You my breath, blood, heartbeat are shot through,
who can deny Your power? Only the fool.

Shot through with You’s my life from start to end,
from eons You have forged my destiny,
You test me true, but always as a friend,
You hope I give the life You gave to me.

My soul, my self You have shot through the same,
I sense Your presence in my very core,
You ask in faith I see and serve Your name,
and take Your side to fight the devil’s war.

I pray You be shot through with me in turn,
that, God, Your face I may with grace discern.

                        by Pete Voelz      11/26/13

Love Thanks

How do I thank You this Thanksgiving Day?
All You’ve done, Lord, I don’t know where to start,
since You know all, it’s not just words I say,
I thank You from the bottom of my heart.

Yet gratitude is not just how I feel,
my attitude will prove itself in prayer,
with body language, fold my hands and kneel,
for public thanks, my church will see me there.

Sincerest thanks are best shown by my love,
I love You most obeying Your commands,
but added to my love for You above,
I feed the hungry with my thankful hands.

And Lord, while filling up their empty bowls,
I’ll live Your love to fill their hungry souls.

           by Pete Voelz      11/24/13

God Near and Warm

God gave me life, does that sound far away?
God gave me power to love, does that sound cold?
God made me free, then asked me to obey,
God's near and warm, mysterious to behold.

O God, You have such power over me,
how can't I tremble when I'm facing You?
And yet You treat me gentle as can be,
how can I run from One Who is so true?

God holds me in the soft palm of His hand,
when times are good or tough, He's always there.
God gives so much, what's there to understand?
My life is filled up with His constant care.

O God, with all Your love, what can I say?
Except to pray that near and warm You’ll stay.

                       -- by Pete Voelz          12/07

Shadows in the Mist

A circle may connect but not complete,
few times do we bring closure to a story,
our friends, our family even, we just meet
briefly, part way in life, then on to glory.

Who really knows us, Lord, but only You,
with others we’re mere shadows in the mist,
if we make no attempt to know You too,
who’s left in life that cannot be dismissed?

We seek to find one love that will survive,
O lucky us, they’re with us for a while,
but comes the time when they’re no more alive,
we’re left with but the memory of their smile.

So many, Lord, alone and lost, abound
with no one left, unless Your love’s around.

                    by Pete Voelz       11/19/13
pmvoelz.blogspot.sg

Not Much

O God, I want to crawl into a hole,
I feel like I’m beset on every side,
my body aches, so also aches my soul,
I look around to find a place to hide.

I need, O God, someone to rescue me,
strength to go on, and courage more than pity,
repentance too, if saved I am to be,
what good’s a guard, if good is not the city?

You’re busy with the big, Lord, I’m so small,
You hire the stars, can You save me some change?
I’ll disappear, You won’t see me at all,
Oh no, I know I’m never out of range.

O God, my strength, I do not ask for much,
a bit of grace, a glance, a gentle touch.

                  by Pete Voelz      11/19/13

Face Love

I sense God’s face is right before me now,
a look of love that I will never leave,
in mystery drawn it draws me on somehow,
in wondrous ways I now cannot conceive.

His eyes of love on me keep on their gaze,
my zigzag path He easy finds to follow,
His penetrating glance lasts all my days,
for, oh! He holds me hard in His hand’s hollow.

My deer-in-headlights soul stands still to stare
at sorrow mine and mercy His combined,
between us a telepathy of prayer,
with unmixed messages of love divined.

By now, O Lord of love, I know my place--
to ever face and love Your loving face.

                    by Pete Voelz      11/21/13

TLC Mercy

My sin is like a grain of sand next to
the mountain of God’s mercy rising there,*
His greatest quality, mercy, a clue**
to just how vast’s His tender loving care.

Why would God make me if He did not love
His creature like Creation He called “good”?
He made the sea, why not a mountain of
His mercy He wants clearly understood.***

If God’s good is so visible on earth,
then greater still--invisible to me--
is all His good in me--of such great worth
that I will last for all eternity.

Someday will pass away, Lord, time and space,
but I’ll still live Your TLC of grace.

* St. John Vianney
** Jesus to St. Sr. Faustina
*** “Let the greatest sinners place their trust
in My mercy.”--Jesus to St. Sr. Faustina

                   by Pete Voelz      11/10/13

Flawed Love?

Would God be easier to love if flawed?
We're used to loving us despite our flaws,
do we love God more since we're overawed,
and is our faithfulness to Him the cause?

If all were perfect like You, Lord, would I
love them more for their perfect love for me,
or do I love them more for all they try
to love me more despite the flaws they see?

Do we love You because we're in Your debt,
for You have given us a hundredfold
what any of them give to us, and yet
we love You for You're God, we do as told.

We love flawed people just because we do,
Lord, were You flawed, would we at all love You?

                           -- by Pete Voelz       2/11

Second Nature God

Since You're first nature to me, God, I trust
You won't mind being second nature too,
for if You can make great me out of dust,
then I can take for granted all You do.

O God, if You are just assumed to be,
that doesn't mean I don't believe or care,
for if I know You automatically,
then I don't have to worry You are there.

And God, if You're the firm foundation of
all that I know and all that I believe,
then from all that, more sure will flow my love,
and the great tapestry of faith I weave.

O God, if You allow me to assume,
then truly all I do for You will bloom.

                        -- by Pete Voelz     10/07

Loveful Pain

I saw a carpenter’s child with three spikes,
at play in his cross shadow on the floor,
unknowing of the pain as each spike strikes,
unknowing how the cross would bring on more.

How much, I wonder, did this child know
of all His suffering we have knowledge of?
Would He have loved His Father full of woe?
Did He already think of us with love?

We don’t know now what pain we must endure,
we know life brings its pain, endure we must,
to each God gives a cross we can be sure,
unknowing what, we pray, “In God we trust.”

Lord, let not my own suffering be in vain,
but, like You, offer all as loveful pain.

                     by Pete Voelz     10/19/13

My Miracle

Wouldn’t I like to work a miracle,
to lay my hands on someone and they’re cured,
but wait, there is a miracle spiritual--
we pray and save a sinner, we’re assured.

Pick up a pin with love, St. Theresa said,
and save a sinner with your little deed,
and Mary came to Fatima and pled
for us to pray for sinners most in need.

We like the physical ones--they can be seen,
the spiritual miracles are like a wraith,
a change in one’s behavior we can glean,
for changes in a soul--our eyes of faith.

The lifetime physical ones are nice to see,
the spiritual ones last an eternity.

                by Pete Voelz      11/16/13

I Want, I Pray

I want, I want, I want a lot of things,
God wants one thing--my soul with Him to be,
we wrestle with these deadly reckonings,
He lets me choose because He made me free.

What a responsibility this is,
therein the balance hang my fun, my soul,
my destiny, my life, my love--and His,
since He is God, should I hand Him control?

O God, You know my wants, my heart, my fear,
You know I know the answer lies in prayer,
with me You struggle willingly down here,
can I accept Your tender loving care?

It’s what You want, not what I want, You say,
to want Your will, I pray, I pray, I pray.

                        by Pete Voelz      11/12/13

O Little Soul

O Little Soul, I am the Master of
the universe and all within your sight,
and yet I am with fallen you in love,
when first of you I thought at first of light.

O Little Soul, why do I love you so,
why do I fight the devil for your heart,
and care so much that you to heaven go,
and never want the two of us apart?

What I wish most from you is your love true,
there’s no true love unless it’s given free,
just as I freely give My love to you,
please give so free your faith and love to Me.

The way I know you love Me all you can:
how do you treat Me in your fellowman?

                       by Pete Voelz      11/12/13

More Joy

Do I not want to love than be loved more?
In helping others, don’t I take more pleasure?
I’m loved by loving--it’s not either-or,
I want to give more than to horde my treasure.

Choose now to love, we don’t have long to live,
we only take our good work and our sin,
far better here than getting is to give,
at heaven, will they let empty souls come in?

Have you not yet discovered there’s more joy,
not in a feast where you can feed your face,
but lifting hunger from some little boy,
for you a cost and yet a gift of grace.

O Lord, let me love others with a smile,
so I can make Your love for me worthwhile.

                     by Pete Voelz      11/13/13

Why Should I Love?

Why should I love this Man Who died for me,
Whose life and death prove that He loves me fierce,
Who for my sins was hung upon a tree,
Whose love I let my heart and conscience pierce?

Why should I love this Father up above,
Who gave me life and holds me in His hand,
a God of love Who gives me all His love,
Who made me free to love by His command?

O Holy Spirit, why should I love You,
Who gives me gifts of courage, power and grace,
Who helps me be a person free and true,
a God Who is a person with a face?

Why should I love You Three--unless I own
a selfish sinful soul and heart of stone?

                     by Pete Voelz      11/12/13

God Warning

As I am God, I deal out life and death,
in My Old Book, I God Almighty saith,*
You I conceive, I quench your life and breath,
to see all this, I offer eyes of faith.

When your sins go too far offending Me,
I loose destruction, death and desolation,
and wielding wrong their powers, the powers-that-be
unleash My powers on your entire nation.

If you do not repent, I will not bless
your land, nor will I my swift sword restrain,
as in My Old Book I have said, “unless
the city’s good, the watchman guards in vain.”**

My institutions, Church, and human life
you must defend, or else we end in strife.

* Deut. 32:39
** Psalm 127:1 -- JFK’s favorite O.T. quote

               by Pete Voelz      11/11/13

Looking Back

A million years from now when life is done
as we look back on our short time on earth
and our eternity has just begun,
what will we see that made it be it's worth?

How can so few years here so set our fate--
this brief blink of an eye decisive--when
we'll end up and forever see inflate
our fast lifetime that’s soon eternal then?

What did Christ do in His mere thirty-three,
one half the life that I already live?
What all in love has God so given me
that I should in return be meant to give?

This riddle--that for little I have given,
do I deserve eternity in heaven?

                               by Pete Voelz

Faith Answers

We are not meant to know all answers here,
there is no faith without some mystery,
we who would like to see our future clear
can’t even clarify our history.

The more that science shows and figures out,
the more we see the beauty, true and good,
but progress sets our moral life to doubt,
and we end up not living as we should.

We put our faith in fun, the free, the new,
for answers there, we don’t know where to start,
without school, cross and law, answers are few,
we need to note what’s written on our heart.

Your answers, Lord, I know enough for now,
give me more faith You have them all somehow.

                                by Pete Voelz      11/9/13

Church Faith

Where’s there to place my faith if not the Church?
The Church takes seriously its role to play,
as Socrates once said, “For truth we search,”
the Church tries to define God’s truth each day.

For faith and truth, we’ve come to look to science,
but only truths of nature is its goal,
for spiritual truth we give the Church reliance ,
I do not go to science for my soul.

Yet science and the Church do not conflict,
God made them both to work within their place,
to put faith in myself would contradict,
the Church so better knows the world of grace.

O God, it’s truth and grace that I desire--
and love--that here You have Your Church inspire.

                                  by Pete Voelz      11/8/13

Faith Score

God asks me things to do, but not to know,
to teach, then send my students off somewhere,
to raise my children, then to let them go,
by faith, I leave them all to God’s good care.

By faith, the Bible I know I can trust,
to put it into practice gives me pause,
to worship God in church for me’s a must,
by faith, I follow all their rules and laws.

With faith and reason’s help, I am not blind,
but do my prayers save sinners for Your glory?
And will my plenary indulgence bind
You, Lord, to free a soul from purgatory?*

With prayers and good intentions, I need more--
great faith in You, then let You keep the score.

                           by Pete Voelz      11/7/13

(After I wrote this poem early this morning,
I found out one of my best friends just died,
so I went to church and got him a plenary
indulgence--GMC, God-Made Coincidence.)

My Lord, My Ring

I own a ring more powerful than the ring.
I serve a Lord much greater than their lord.
My real adventure and my faithful King
are worth the swinging of my own swift sword.

The ring's power was invisibility,
my ring is my own powerful personal soul;
all my invisible spirituality--
my hope, my faith, my love, my blessed goal.

No fantasy tale, my epic war is true;
no Star Wars Force, no Hogwarts magic wand,
no classic myth, my stuff of life is new,
my character real, as are the friends I bond.

No star, I am the hero of my quest,
the happy ending--when I've passed the test.

                          -- by Pete Voelz       2003      

Suffer God

God knows what suffering is, He’s seen it all,
and Christ experienced the worst upon the cross,
the pain that we inherited from the Fall
Christ turns into a win and not a loss.

The cross, a sign of victory over sin,
symbol of pain we fallen can’t escape,
shows when we suffer, then we really win,
forgiveness earn and keep our souls in shape.

In pain God’s with us in a special way,
if we unite our suffering to His,
we’ll also share His glory there someday,
when He ends all the pain and sin there is.

Lord, I am free to bear my misery,
if I but take this grace You give to me.

                       by Pete Voelz      11/5/13

Ambush God

You wake me, God, and ambush me at night,
alone, afraid, defenseless in the dark,
reminding me my sins aligned in light,
with my regrets exposed to hit their mark.

Left desolate and almost in despair,
desiring to repent, filled with remorse
and sorrow that I'm ready to declare,
because there is no other real recourse.

Then You assault me in another way,
invading me with weapons of a friend,
to flood me with forgiveness while I pray,
and drench me in Your mercy without end.

O God, if this is how You wage a war,
then by Your grace, I beg for more and more.

                                         by Pete Voelz

God Urgent

God’s there available to each, to all,
with an immediacy we can’t conceive,
always prepared to save us when we fall,
and constantly encourage us to believe.

To God the earth is like a grain of sand,
He sees the long view to eternity,
He holds me and the world snug in His hand,
to share His grand perspective I am free.

Great as God’s power, His love is greater still,
but all His love for us comes at a cost,
we can’t have sinful fun and do His will,
we risk to have it both ways and we’re lost.

I stop to smell too many roses here,
You, Urgent Lord, urge me to get in gear.

                       by Pete Voelz      11/3/13

Soldier Soul

Whence come my thoughts, for most come not from me,
God’s Providence rules, so are most thoughts His will?
Some, God allows, come from my enemy,
then I, free, dwell on some for good or ill.

This fallen world, the devil’s playground real,
provides distractions for my poor weak mind,
I oft don’t choose the good, but how I feel,
and sometimes with the good and bad entwined.

There is this urgent battle for my soul,
if I take it too serious, life’s no fun,
but being free, I’m generally in control,
for good or ill, I finally say who won.

To win this war of thoughts, I must choose You,
my soldier soul needs grace to, Lord, choose true.

                         by Pete Voelz      11/2/13

God Loyal

If faith saves me, it’s God’s faith more than mine--
His faithfulness, His loyalty to me,
my faith in Him is human, His divine,
like love, He shows me infinite loyalty.

God’s loyal to me through our thick and thin,
when I’m disloyal, He stays with me true,
though I completely turn my back and sin,
His loyalty is unconditional too.

God’s loyalty to me makes one demand,
that for my sin, I show my true contrition,
based on my faith and love at His command,
and choose it freely of my own volition.

Yet not just mine, I feel Your faithful chase,
Lord, fill me up with Your free loyal grace.

                          by Pete Voelz      11/1/13