I know that your heart yearns, little one,

to create something beautiful, a testament of love,

a reflection, in the dimness of this world,

of the radiant beauty of my own eternal light.

I know the longing within to give birth without,

the desire to create, sharing in eternal creativity.

I want you to know, beloved, and to feel

that the greatest masterpiece I desire for you

is the unspeakable beauty which is you yourself.

You, the one whom I infinitely love, are the icon,

transparent to my shining glory,

enfolded in my grace,

a blaze of fiery light bursting through the eyes,

a figure whose countenance,

whose heart, whose life

is a reflection of the life, the heart, the face

which is my own.

This book is a compact, abridged collection of my reflections in the nature of "free-form" poetry, which were written between the years 2016-2022, though it still contains quite a bit of content. They are a personal and yet hopefully universal expression of my own prayer and contemplation during these years, and still an abiding witness, not only to the incredible goodness and love of our God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - in my own life, but also are intended to be a revelation of his closeness and care for each one of his precious and beloved children. They have perhaps expressed, as well as limited words can, the mystery burning at the heart of my own existence, which has ravished me and drawn me so deeply since my adolescence. But I believe that this mystery is one, meant for each one of us, though we all participate in it - in the love and intimacy of God - in the unique and incomparable drama of our own life unfolding before him. My hope and prayer in sharing these reflections and prayers, something intimate born in the solitude between myself and God, is simply that they may be a small catalyst for you to encounter him and to know his love, to let your heart be pierced with the arrow of his beauty and thereby drawn to him, drawn to him in ardent longing and tender love, throughout this life unto the consummation that awaits in eternity.