The Perfect House

I want to build a perfect house and home
I can enjoy for, lo, these many years,
a sun porch warm, a foyer with a dome,
a place to show expensive souvenirs.

But since I'm getting old, it will not last,
and nothing I possess I can take with,
why dwell upon the past when past is past,
and merely build a crumbling monolith?

Instead I'll sell more baggage for the poor,
forsaking every fad and fantasy,
to always ask for less instead of more,
and build a house for all eternity.

O God, let me prepare to take for free
the perfect mansion You have made for me.

                      -- by Pete Voelz        6/06

To God with Class

Each day I take Your body into mine,
and worship You, O loving God, at Mass,
each night I post a poem to You on line,
to try and offer You a little class.

In everyone I strive to see Your face
to prove by time and test I like You best,
and frost all my experience with Your grace
to meet by invitation as Your guest.

I yearn to put my arms around Your neck,
to speak the magic words because they’re true,
and face-to-face like angels in low tech,
to whisper in Your ear, “Lord, I love You.”

I know I have but little class to lend,
Lord, just enough to hear You call me friend.

                     by Pete Voelz     5/30/14

Trading Gifts

I trade my gifts for God's:
my precious life, to start,
I give it back to Him
with all my heart.

The gift of faith is next:
this treasure that God gave me,
returning it to Him, I trust,
will be enough to save me.

The third is God's good grace,
and plenty for my needs
of following His holy will
with gifts of my good deeds.

Of course, God's infinite love,
far stronger than a mother's,
returns to Him whenever I
can share it with my brothers.

I look around and see
the gifts of God's creation;
for it I'll give in stewardship
my work of preservation.

The people God has given me--
my children, friends and wife--
I'll serve with true devotion
the remainder of my life.

God's gifts of health and wealth and work
I'll give all back by using
the best of them on His behalf
in ways of my own choosing.

The talents and the charisms
God gave me at my birth
I offer to His glory
for all that they are worth

God gives His every gift to me
in ways that are so tender;
I have no choice but to return
them all in sweet surrender.

     -- by Pete Voelz       1999

God Inscrutable

God is inscrutable, yet He is known,
God is invisible, yet He is seen,
God's not some science thing we make our own,
God's not an either-or, He's in between.

By God's creation, we can know He's there,
by Revelation, God discloses more,
it is enough to know His love and care,
we do not have to figure out His core.

Our eyes of faith work well enough to see
we can know Him and how to serve Him best,
the love we feel for God's no mystery,
we know enough, we don't need all the rest.

O God, I do not have to please my pride,
I love You, and all else I will abide.

                      -- by Pete Voelz       5/08

Old Prayers

Sometimes I have no words to give to God,
there's nothing in my sorry soul to say,
I may as well be sunk beneath the sod,
ennui so much on me I cannot pray.

A mind so full of worries got me down,
with God so far away, what can I do?
On every forlorn face is fixed a frown,
with every color blending into blue.

I, empty, move to mine my memory,
and there a prayer whose words I know appears,
I say them slow and, lo, they comfort me,
and soon God comes to truck away my fears.

I'm glad, O Lord, there are old prayers I know,
that sparkle as they lift my spirits so.

                                   -- by Pete Voelz     8/09

Spiritual Allergy

A spiritual allergy can take a toll,
it’s such an awkward quagmire that I’m in,
there is a constant battle in my soul,
my allergy to either grace or sin.

Could it be that it’s both that cause my sneeze?
I can’t tell really which one makes me sick,
it’s not a flesh, but soul-eating disease
that makes me want to give them both a kick.

The struggle brings a strange paralysis,
the wishes whose reward I can’t afford,
desires whose allures make me dismiss
my reconciliation with the Lord.

I can’t get rid of it, nor yet embrace
my allergy, O Lord, to sin and grace.

                         by Pete Voelz     5/26/14

New Strength

To Your new saints, O God, You give new strength,
You raise each up to be Your special friend,
they stormed Your heaven--its depth and height and length,
in ways that we can barely comprehend.

They stalk Your heart, they don’t play at the edges,
how do they land a rank so wonderful?
By prayer and pain they slam the devil’s wedges,
You help them make their canonized miracle.

Pope John the Twenty-Third and Pope John Paul,
they strengthen now Your Church and Papacy,
with mighty deeds they answered to Your call,
good time to call on their new strength for me.

I pray You, Lord, call off all Your restraints,
and show Your strength through these Your strong new saints.

                                        by Pete Voelz     5/24/14