Poems: God Speaks to the Soul; God Answers the Soul
God Speaks to the Soul
And God said to the soul:
I desired you before the world began.
I desire you now
As you desire me.
And where the desires of two come together
There love is perfected.
God Answers the Soul
It is my nature that makes me love you often,
For I am love itself.
It is my longing that makes me love you intensely,
For I yearn to be loved from the heart.
It is my eternity that makes me love you long,
For I have no end.
-------------------- Mechthild of Magdeburg (1210-1285), Medieval German mystic and poet and beguine (urban monastic), translated by Jane Hirshfield
Proverb:
“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.”
------------------- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) from Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer
Painting: Christ in Sunset, Icon by Mary Jane Miller
Prayer: My God, you are always close to me
My God, you are always close to me.
In obedience to you,
I must now apply myself to outward things.
Yet, as I do,
I pray that you will give me the grace of your presence.
And to this end
I ask that you will assist my work,
receive its fruits as an offering to you,
and all the while direct all my affections to you.
------------------ Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (born Nicolas Herman) (1614-1691), French Carmelite monk, author of The Practice of the Presence of God
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