"My lovers and friends hast thou put away from me, and hid mine acquaintance out of my sight." Psalm 88:18
"All by myself Dont wanna be All by myself anymore All by myself Dont wanna live All by myself anymore" Really Cheesy Pop Ballad
Lucado describes several familiar examples of loneliness as agony. But he goes on to suggest that this same suffering can give way to blissful intimacy with God.
The poem The Dark Night by John of the Cross is often invoked as an expression of lonely agony (ever had a priest tell you, "Wow, you are really going through a 'dark night of the soul'"?) But John's mystical words really take us into the moment when the profound absence of everyone and everything becomes Christ's caress. Read the whole poem at the link (and John's own commentary on it when you have time), and note especially these stanzas:
3. On that glad night,in secret, for no one saw me,nor did I look at anything,with no other light or guide than the one that burned in my heart.
4. This guided me more surely than the light of noon to where he was awaiting me- him I knew so well - there in a place where no one appeared.
May the lover of souls bless your loneliness.
Chapter 14 on Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment