Oh, my wandering soul...

 Oh, how busy is my ego, that tries to pin down things

That perpetually wax and wane, and come and go, to and fro.

Like the flower of youth that does or does not bear fruit,

Then fades away into the ever lengthening frozen river of time.

It does no good to focus on happiness in this vale of tears and tribulations,

Lest the storms that rage in my mind damage the peaceful garden in my soul.

I am like a donkey who is maneuvered, by means of the carrot of pleasure

And the stick of pain, to satisfy my material desires.

When I die, I will retreat into the spirit world searching for unity.

My sight will be united, together with all shapes and colors.

My hearing will be united, together with silence and all sounds

My mind will be be united together with all languages and thoughts,

Like rivers coming from the ocean flow back into the same ocean.  

I will die at the right time; me to die and you to live on.

Which of us goes toward what is best is known only to God.

Oh my wandering soul, fragile host and companion of my body,

To what places will you go when it is our time to surrender?

Come Holy Spirit, Creator blest, and in my heart take up Thy rest;

Come with thy grace and heavenly aid, to fill the heart that you made. 

​(Bob Mrotek 2024) 

.

Politics from the depths of Hell

Feisty young millennials all in a row

Ready to challenge you blow by blow.

They are sophists all and pundits too,

Who can take either side, or leave it,

Love it, or hate it, or beat it 'til it's blue.

It depends upon what the going rate is.

There is no room for right or wrong

It is whatever it is that it needs to be,

I'll give you a clue, it's all about ratings.

Claws that scratch and eyes that flash

One glance could set the other on fire

And talking points increase the ire,

Spoken in haste and driven by greed,

Woe to the truth and woe to the target,

In any case may both be damned.

Winner take all and loser cast blame

After all, you know it's just a game,

From the very depths of Hell.

(Bob Mrotek 2016) 

.

Past Perfect, Present Inclusive, and Future Uncertain

My name is Bob. The word Bob is the past perfect,

Present inclusive, and future uncertain form of the infinitive, "to be."

I am the square root of the human factor and the answer is "me."

I entered this world upside down and hanging by my heels,

While someone slapped my fanny and at that very moment,

I began my lifelong habit of complaining about injustice.

I will leave this life right side up and supine, griping about the same.

My religion is God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth,

With whom I communicate through His Incarnation, Jesus Christ,

At the impetus of His Holy Spirit, the spark of life.

We are perhaps living in "the end times" and long for a return to "normal."

But "normal" can be good or bad depending on personal perspective.

Nostalgia is a spiritual longing for a time and place,

That in reality, never was and to which we can never return.

It is an echo of something in a past life that we desired but never attained,

And our grief for a lost opportunity, a place in nowhere that can never really be.

It is a distortion of memory like a picture out of focus.  Nostalgia is meaningless.

Most things did not actually happen like we remember, only the good parts.

The world has overtaken George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984,"

But not quite yet Aldus Huxley's "Brave New World," but no doubt soon will.

At night, I wander about the stars and planets seeking my path to enlightenment.

St. Paul tells us that it is up to everyone to find their own salvation,

Jesus tells us to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect.

Saint Augustine tells us that it is our intent that counts the most.

That sounds like a good plan to me. If you try you may never get everything right,

But you will never get everything wrong either. If you don't try, you get no return at all. 

(Bob Mrotek 2024)

.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thank you for this new day in which

To serve You for Your greater honor and glory.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

I will be happy in the Lord in whom I trust,

Who is my rock, my foundation,

My salvation, my refuge and my strength,

My wisdom and understanding,

My sword and my shield, and my hope

For the resurrection and eternal life, and 

Dear God, I will love You forever, because 

You created me, gave me life and sustain me,

You forgive my sins, and You first loved me.

"Ad Mejorem Dei Gloriam" 

For God's Greater Glory

(Bob Mrotek 2024)

The Frozen River of Time

The past never dies, it just freezes, and it trails along behind us

In the frozen river of time like the long tail of a blazing comet.

It is the finger of fate that writes upon the wall and then moves on.

It is the history of our past and cannot be erased by piety nor wit.

Everyone has a record in this history, some long and some short.

It is a record of our world line and all of the squiggles thereupon.

Be mindful of what fate may record in your haphazard biography.

Be careful about what you say and do and to whom you do it to.

Make good choices now so that you won't have to wince later.

We are marching in a grand parade through time immemorial,

Where countless millions have gone before and millions go after.

Many try to leave a mark so that they will never be forgotten.

What will the last one do when there are no more to remember?

Perhaps those fortunate who make it to Paradise will be able to

Watch it all again like episodes of a long streaming video series.

After all, we will have plenty of eternity to watch reruns.

.

Look forward, not backward!

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of the Holy Spirit.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
Seek not to make them just like you,
For life goes forward and not backward.
They don't care about your memories.
They care only about their own desires.
You are the bows from which your children
Are sent forward as living arrows.
Pray that your arrows go swift and far
And meet the mark that the Lord intended,
For even as He loves the arrows that fly,
He also loves the bow that is good and true. 

​(Bob Mrotek 2024)

.

Year after year...

Year after year the material desires we long for recede before us

Into the future and we, with arms outstretched, chase after them.

The sad thing about loving material things is they can't love you back.

The "American Dream" as some people call it, the dream of solvency

And equality with liberty and justice for all, will never come true.

Life is not a bitcoin. Time is the one true currency.

When you look up at the clock it's already suppertime;

When you look up at the calendar it's the end of the month;

When you look up, the year is over and many years have passed!

Once a year we hold a festival and all with one accord unite

In brotherly affection and good will, and afterward the rat race continues.

And so we beat on against the current, borne back ceaselessly.

As it was so, it will ever be, and as it first began, so it continues.

But...It doesn't matter how hopeless to us that life may seem.

Don't let a day pass without an effort to make the world a better place.

More shall be given to those who give of themselves.  

For peace and harmony and the greater glory of our Creator.

Between stimulus and response there is a space, and

In that space is our free will power to choose good or evil,

And how we respond determines our freedom and eternal life.

We must love God with our whole heart, and soul, and mind,

And love our neighbors through non-violent self-sacrifice.

Therein lies the mystery. The answer lies in fervent prayer.

.

The Hallmark of Creation

 

My parents are no longer with us on this Earth

But the echoes of their voices are locked in my heart.

At night I hide from the world, searching for peace.

The raging storms of reality that invade my mind

Tend to cancel my dreams and awaken my anxiety.

Is peace just a dream or will it be possible after all.  

We are all students here, every single one of us.

Our understanding will never be totally complete.

Fear alone ensures that we remain quite ignorant

And fast asleep in the arms of ancestral tradition.

I don't want to live in some hum-drum past where

There is nothing new under the sun and sky.

Let's keep to the tried and true but at the same time

Open our eyes to the amazing and unexpected

Surprises that God may have in store for us,

I can't believe that the Creator has stopped creating.

The hallmark of creation is continuous improvement.

Let our collective effort be for the greater glory of God.

"Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam," (For God's Greater Glory).

If this makes us progressive, then so let it be.

(Bob Mrotek 2023)

.

Tears of Regret

The miracle of my birth is to me sufficient proof of a Creator.
And so I am duty bound and determined to lead a moral life 
For the greater glory of God, that there be no regrets.
But, alas, I have not escaped regrets, so what can I do? 
Whenever I think that I have the answer to this problem,
It changes form like the patterns in a kaleidoscope,
Here is a man who is earnestly seeking enlightenment,
While drowning in his own folly and unreasonable expectations.
I spend days and nights haunted by my inadequacies and errors
Bringing to mind the memories of those whom I may have offended,
Beseeching them to answer me and forgive my trespasses,
For many a man is slain by the destiny of his own making.
There are three kinds of tears associated with emotion.
They are tears of joy, tears of sadness, and tears of regret.
The first two are like raindrops falling from the eyes.
They are deeply heartfelt but slowly dissipate with time.
The third are tears of blood that drip, drip, drip from the heart.
They are the bloody tears of regret that never go away.
Even Saint Peter was not immune. His tears of  regret began
When the rooster crowed after he denied Our Lord three times.
The tears of regret are the guardrails of moral reality, 
They are reminders that the wages of sin are death, but
The gift of God is forgiveness by way of repentance
And the peace of mind and heart that go with it thereafter.
Go in peace brothers and sisters and may God be with you.
(Bob Mrotek 2023)

.

Between the Blinks

You blink and you find yourself in the November of your life.

Between the blinks, your children grew up, your parents died,

And many old friends are no longer living or have moved on.

You blink between the worry, and the work, and the money spent,

And the dreams that you put away for "sometime when you can."

When we blink too fast, we miss a laugh, a hug, and one last "I love you."

What if we stop blinking so much and take mental snapshots of our life?

Look after the children when they do their homework. Teach them.

Look at your spouses in a quiet moment and seek to understand them.

Look at your mothers and fathers if they are still around and cherish them.

Spend time with relatives and friends and seek out the good in them.

Be as joyful as you can during this time and don't waste the opportunity.

Yes, time will pass, by and by, but looking back, "in the blink of an eye,"

Not even death can take away the moments of our happiness.

They will keep us company on the journey to heaven and eternal life.  

(Bob Mrotek 2023)

.