The Poetry of Mark Daniel Milbocker

Despite all my wandering restless, I do love You above all things. For my sake, I wish to explain why...that I may never again forget in times of blindness.

Father, You are all around me
in every dimension of my being,
You who knew me before I thought,
You who loved me before I loved.
Being Your Son is my dignity and
greatest pride, and in my deepest doubts
I could no sooner deny that You are my
Loving Creator, Sustainer, Mover and Father
than I could deny my earthly father made me.

Your Love to me is inseparable
like the sun who shines on the guilty
so Your Love seeks no reason to love
other than the inalienable fact of Your
paternity.

You who are the source of all that is Good
and never the source of evil or suffering.
I accept the free will You endowed
me with, in Your image, and accept
that individually and as part of creation,
I rebelled and brought evil and injury
upon myself and others.

Oh source of Grace, You give
me the strength to forgive myself
and creation, as You do, that
injury may be healed and evil repented.

And Father in Your Mercy,
You spoke Your name and
gave us Your law that we might know You
who are unknowable.
And You gave us to know that
Your Providence permeates all creation
so that we may never be parted
from You even in the suffering of our sin -
Your Grace brings goodness to those
who love You.

But Father, of all Your love,
goodness and grace, You, Oh Great
Mystery, gave us even more in Christ
Your Beloved Son.

Christ, Jesus, the Truth and Way,
You are my heart's desire.
Like the passionate longings of a lover,
so I yearn and ache for You.
Your Word gives my mind light
and Your Body gives my heart rest.
You are the goodness and loving mercy
of the Father and above all things
I love You. But You, oh Judge,
divided the path making clear
the narrow way to the Father.

You, oh Messiah, gave the law flesh,
and brought the Face of God to earth.
You supped with us in our darkest humanity
and You, oh Grace, oh Love of the Father,
walked with us, touching our festering
leprosies, borne for generations - You lifted
the sins of our fathers and bid us follow You.

And You, oh Great Mystery,
the Christ, suffered with us unto death
that the Father's Mercy would extend
to all generations and that we might
share with You in the dignity of being
a child of the Father, an instrument
of Grace, salvation for all of creation
that loves You.

The greatest miracle of our humanity
is Your resurrection. You who opened
a Way to the Father for
His ungrateful children.
In You, oh Beloved Lord, we find
the strength to be grateful, to forgive
our injuries and love doers of evil.
In You, we stand up as sons and
daughters of the Father who first loved us.

Oh Jesus, (blessed be Your Holy Name!)
You come to us in the remembrance
of Your last supper, You who daily
renew Your Humanity that we might
hold, taste and ingest Your Flesh
that our hearts
may be reminded of their deepest desire
and strengthened in faith, hope and love.

And You even visit us in Your priests
giving us eyes to look into and hands
to touch, the chosen vehicles of Your
daily incarnation.

But You, oh Beloved Son of the Father,
not only draw our affections, but
each us by Your Word that we
might grow in virtue. You teach
us to love penance and corrections, for
You humbled Yourself before the Father
not seeking even Your rightful equality.
And in virtue is greater mercy, for we
learn to accept the Will of the Father
in all things, cooperating with His Grace.
In this transformation we die to self
and begin living for Jesus, our Beloved,
and for all of creation which He loves.
In virtue is found the
Grace of the Father that is Jesus
Christ through His Spirit to
repair the effects of evil and stop the
cycle of self-torment that began with
our first sin.

But virtue is a habit built
from many tiny choices that we make
in response to the Father's love for us
in the Son through His Spirit.
If we seek to love God, then, we can
find freedom to do so in building habits
of virtue in each choice we encounter.
Through prayer, we increase our awareness
of these choices and draw new strength to
choose Goodness in all we do.

And so although Christ ascended
to heaven, He gave us His Spirit
of Love to be with us always.
Oh Spirit who is our source of joy,
we are glad in knowing You are with us,
You whom our hearts desire above all else.

Oh Spirit, You are the breath of
the Father in every dimension of my being.
You are the desire in my heart,
the truth in my mind, and
the goodness that makes me worthy
of the Father's sustaining love.

You leap in my heart when
I approach another who is filled
with You, and You are my 3rd eye
that sees the intense beauty of
another's soul which is the Father's handicraft.

You are the passion that longs in
me for Christ and my restlessness
when I fill His place in me with
idolatrous compromises.

You are my very life, oh Spirit of the Father,
who has joined in creating all things
and gave breath to the Word that is Christ.
In You echoes and ripples the voice
of the Father that is Christ to the
ends of all creation in its
every dimension and quality.
You are at the bottom of the deepest
depth of the intricacy of existence.
You are the light that brings the
Beauty of the Father that is the Son
to our eyes, and even as a warmth to our skin.

You, oh Great Spirit, are the Power
of creation and my life breath.
I choose life and so honor You,
I choose passion and embrace You, oh Desire,
I choose truth, and move with You
in the Way of Goodness to the Father.

I believe in You, oh God who is a Trinity
of persons, oh Great Mystery!
I strive to know what You have revealed
to us, your poor people. I love You
above all things and may I never
doubt Your love for me again.
Though my understanding may fail,
teach me virtue that I might
grow strong in my heart
to choose Your way of goodness
even in my subconscious that it
may be who I am, Your son, Your lover,
Your apostle, Your Mark Daniel.

I cannot end this creedal meditation
without extolling the great gifts
of God that are Mary and her Church.

It is by Christ that Mary was created,
a creation of perfect beauty, purity
and virtue. She is the great Mother
of God and by the Grace of the Trinity,
she was a perfect child of the Father,
mother of the Son, and spouse of the Holy Spirit.
She above all of creation shows us
the Way to the Son and through her
the Spirit in perfect union echoes
the Word, extends the Father's merciful
Grace - not only in miraculous gifts but
throughout every dimension of creation that
loves her Son.

And her prime movement in this world
is the Church, the Body of her Son.
The Church's head is Christ through
Jesus and His apostles that are the
priests and bishops who love Him.

But just as the Spirit is the
passionate love of Christ for the
Church, Mary shares in the
Spirit's maternal love for the Church.

She embodies (gives human form)
to the movements of the Spirit that
give birth, foster, teach and admonish,
help in times of distress, protect and
set free the Church as it journeys
on earth and in heaven.

And the Church is Christ's Body
and no one can approach the
Father except as Christ's Body.
To say we are a son or daughter of the Father
acknowledges the salvation of Christ
and our unity with He who
gives life to the vine,
He, the Sacred Heart and Head that
gives life to the whole Body.

We should not forget that the
Body of Christ is united in heaven
and on earth (for a time) until time
is no more. And so the Church
groans for the unconsummated and
follows in the Way that is Christ
who suffered that the Father's Grace
which is Loving Mercy might be poured out.

But despite our wounds, we remain
united in Christ, and we who
toil on earth, ask our heavenly
brothers and sisters, the saints and
angels, whom we love and revere,
to pray in union with us and for us
to bring about with and by Christ's
resurrection a new heaven and a new earth.

Love,
Mark Daniel

Thank you God, oh Trinity, for any enlightenment
in my poor words that I have written in seeking virtue
to love You more and to accept Your Love and Grace
in my heart and life.
■