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P4L
Excellent. Thank you Salvation! You’re the best! :-)
This was a very important book for me in my teenage years in leading me away from pantheism and to Christianity. Through it I realized that I was a limited, created being and would never merge with the divine, which, according to various pantheist teachings, I was anyway but was trapped by the illusion of separateness. I realized that to be a real, existing creature in a right relation with his creator was a far, far better place to be.
Beautiful
Thank you so much for this link. I have so often referred to St. John’s dark night but had never read it. Since today is his Feast Day I will honor him and I will read this very very slowly. I already have tears in my eyes as I read Chapter 2. You have given me a great gift today. God bless you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MclLF473XtA
This tune was inspired by St. John's poetry. It does have the flavor of the song of Solomon, in that it is interpreted as a love song:
Upon a darkened night
the flame of love was burning in my breast
And by a lantern bright
I fled my house while all in quiet rest
Shrouded by the night
and by the secret stair I quickly fled
The veil concealed my eyes
while all within lay quiet as the dead
Chorus
Oh night thou was my guide
oh night more loving than the rising sun
Oh night that joined the lover
to the beloved one
transforming each of them into the other
Upon that misty night
in secrecy, beyond such mortal sight
Without a guide or light
than that which burned so deeply in my heart
That fire t’was led me on
and shone more bright than of the midday sun
To where he waited still
it was a place where no one else could come
Chorus
Within my pounding heart
which kept itself entirely for him
He fell into his sleep
beneath the cedars all my love I gave
And by the fortress walls
the wind would brush his hair against his brow
And with its smoothest hand
caressed my every sense it would allow
Chorus
I lost myself to him
and laid my face upon my lovers breast
And care and grief grew dim
as in the mornings mist became the light
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair
Bookmarked.