I cannot dance, Lord, unless you lead me.
If you want me to leap with abandon,
You must intone the song.
Then I shall leap into love,
From love into knowledge,
From knowledge into enjoyment,
And from enjoyment beyond all human sensations.
There I want to remain, yet want also to circle higher still.
NEXT Poem
I was warned against writing this book.
People said:
If one did not watch out,
It could be burned.
So I did as I used to do as a child.
When I was sad, I always had to pray.
I bowed to my Lover and said: “Alas, Lord,
Now I am saddened all because of your honor.
If I am going to receive no comfort from you now,
Then you led me astray,
Because you are the one who told me to write it.”
At once God revealed himself to my joyless soul, held this book in his right hand, and said:
“My dear one, do not be overly troubled,
No one can burn the truth….
The words symbolize my marvelous Godhead.
It flows continuously
Into your soul from my divine mouth.
The sound of the words is a sign of my living spirit
And through it achieves genuine truth.
Now examine all these words—
How admirably do they proclaim my personal secrets!
So have no doubts about yourself.”
“Ah, Lord, if I were a learned religious man,
And if you had performed this unique miracle using him,
You would receive everlasting honor for it.
But how is one supposed to believe
That you have built a golden house on filthy ooze…
Lord, earthly wisdom will not be able to find you there.”
“….One finds many a professor learned in scripture who actually is a fool in my eyes.
And I’ll tell you something else:
It is a great honor for me with regard to them, and it very much strengthens Holy Christianity
That the unlearned tongue, aided by my Holy Spirit, teaches the learned tongue.”
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
HOW THE SOUL SPEAKS TO THE SOUL
Lord, you are my lover,
My longing,
My flowing stream,
My sun,
And I am your reflection.
HOW GOD ANSWERS THE SOUL
It is my nature that makes me love you often,
For I am love itself.
It is my longin 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.
In the desert,
Turn toward emptiness,
Fleeing the self.
Stand alone,
Ask no one’s help,
And your being will quiet,
Free from the bondage of things.
Those who cling to the world,
Endeavor to free them;
Those who are free, praise.
Care for the sick,
But live alone,
Happy to drink from the waters of sorrow,
To kindle Love’s fire
With the twigs of a simple life.
Thus you will live in the desert
– Mechthild of Magdeburg
Ah blessed absence of God,
How lovingly I am bound to you!
You strengthen my will in its pain
And make dear to me
The long hard wait in my poor body.
The nearer I come to you,
The more wonderfully and abundantly
God comes upon me.
In pride, alas, I can easily lose you,
But in the depths of pure humility, O Lord,
I cannot fall away from you.
For the deeper I fall, the sweeter you taste.