Sunday 8 April 2012

Easter Greetings

Salvator Mundi - da Vinci

Christ is Risen
Alleluia
May the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God.
shine into our hearts
to enlighten them with
the knowledge of God's glory,
the glory on the face of Christ
(cf 2 Corinthians 4:4,6)

Quiet Easter Day gives us reflection on the poem of William, below.
After the activities of Easter Vigil and Sunday Morning the time gives us to plumb the thoughts of these lines.
The addled brain slows down, and slow motion gains to newer of slowing to presence, - of 'The Ground of Love' you express.
Thank you, William.


The Ground of Love
On our journey in the footsteps of Our Lord we forget how often we have delayed in following Him, whilst we searched along a path of our own imagining. It is only when we approach the darkness of Calvary that we become aware of our separation from Him, and realize the depth of His love for us as we kneel beneath the Cross upon the ground of love,

+

I love to kneel upon the ground beneath Your wounded feet
My days long spent in searching for the God who lies hidden,
Onl
y here at my journey's end do I find Your living presence
Concealed in the darkness within the inmost being of my soul

I have stumbled along uncertain ways crying after
You Im
agining You to have always been too far ahead of me,
Out of reach to all but Your most familiar disciples
On th
e other side of the ridge beyond the one facing me

Your footsteps I have traced across the uneven ground
Mar
king out a path of faith that I have tried to follow,
But coming upon the darkness of the place of crucifixion
It mu
st surely be too late for me to tell You of my love

For only now do J realize how You feared for my delay
U
ntil this final hour of life to find my way to You, and yet
From d
eep within my being my soul is caught up in Your cry
As
my tears fall beneath the Cross upon the
ground of love

St. John of the Cross - Spiritual Canticle
When have you hidden Yourself,
and abandoned me in my groaning, 0 my Beloved?

St. John of the Cross's own commentary on "Where have you hidden Yourself?"
It is as if the soul said, "Show me the place where You are hidden". It is as if as the revelation of the divine Essence; for the place where the Son a/God is hidden is, according to St.. John, "the bosom of the Father," (John 1: 18), which Is the divine Essence, transcending all mortal vision, and hidden from all human understanding, as Isaiah says, speaking to God, "Verily You are a hidden God." (Isaiah 45:15) ... The Word, the Son of God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is hidden in essence and in presence, in the inmost being of the soul.

Note: the 'ground of love here signifies the centre of divine revelation within man


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