You are my mountain of glass, the feast of my eyes, the loss of my self, the storm of my heart, the dissolution and ruin of my nature, my highest security. Buber, Ecstatic Confessions, P.52.
Oh Lord, love me mightily and love me often and long; the oftener you love me, the purere I become; the more mightily you love me, the more beautiful I become; the longer you love me, the holier I become here on earth. Ibid., P.53.
The soul: (...) I had to go out of all things into God, who is my father by nature, my brother by humanity, my bridegroom by love, and I am his without beginning. (...) So then the best loved she goes to the handsomest he in the secret chamber of the pure Godhead; there she finds the bed of love and the alcove of love and God and man ready.
God: "You must get undressed."
The soul: "Lord, how can that be?"
God: "Dame Soul, you are so natured in me, that nothing must come between us. (...) Therefore you shall put fear and shame from you and all outward virtues. You should wish to find in eternity only the virtue that you bear within yourself by nature, that is, your noble longing and your unfathomable desire. These I will fill eternally with my infinite riches.
The soul: "Lord, now I am a naked soul, and you in yourself a glorious God. Our companionship is eternal bliss without death." Ibid., P.57.
The soul speaks: "O you treasure, immeasurable in your fulness! O you miracle, incomprehesibly manifold! O you infinite power in the lordship of your majesty! With what sorrow I long for you, seeing that you wish to spare me; could all earth's creatures make my moan, the tale of my woe would not be done. For I suffer sorrow measureless; to this a human death were gentleness. I seek you with my thoughts as a maiden secretly seeks her lover. I suffer violent pain, for I am bound to you. The bond is stronger than I am, so I cannot get free of love. I call you with great desire, with piteous voice. I wait for you with a heavy heart; I cannot rest, I burn inextinquishably in the heart of your love. I hunt you with all my might. But if I had the strength of a giant, it would soon be exhausted with following your trail. Oh dearest, do not run so far ahead of me, and rest a bit in love, that I may grasp you.
Oh Lord, you have withdrawn from me everything that I have from you, leave me by your mercy the same gift, which you by nature have given to a dog; that is, that I may be faithful in my distress without rebellion. I truly desire this more than your heavenly kingdom." Ibid., P. 58-59.
The soul: (...) And my flesh falls away, my blood dries up, my bones freeze, my veins are clenched, and my heart melts for your love, and my soul roars with the voice of a hungry lion, (...).
God: "(...) I come to you according to my pleasure, when I wish. You be gentle and still, and hide your sorrow where you can; then the power of love will increase in you. (...) I am in myself in all places and all things, as I was from eternity without beginning, and I wait fro you in the garden of love and pluck for you the flower of sweet union and make a bed for you there from the lovely grass of holy knowledge, and the bright sun of my eternal Godhead shines on you with the hidden wonder of my bliss, of which you have been allowed to taste a little in secret. Ibid., P.60.
These are the words that the voice of love sang, but the sweet music of the heart cannot be given here, for no earthly hand can write it. Ibid., P.60.
That prayer has great power which a person makes with all his might (...). It draws down the great God into the little heart, it drives the hungry soul up into the fullness of God. It brings together two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love. Quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.268
Last updated: 2001/06/12