Come, true light.
Come, life eternal
Come, hidden mystery.
Come, treasure without name.
Come, reality beyond all words.
Come, person beyond all understanding.
Come, rejoicing without ending.
Come, unfailing expectation of the saved.
Come, raising of the fallen.
Come, resurrection of the dead.
Come, all-powerful, for unceasingly you create, refashion, and change all things by your will alone.
Come, invisible whom none may touch and handle.
Come, for you continue always unmoved, yet of every instant you are wholly in movement; you draw near to us who lie in hell, yet you remain higher than the heavens.
Come, for your name fills our hearts with longing and is ever on our lips; yet who you are and what your nature is, we cannot say or know.
Come, Alone to the alone.
Come, my breath and my life.
Come, the consolation of my humble soul.
Come, my joy, my glory, my endless delight.
- St. Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022), from the book The Orthodox Way by Bishop Kallistos Ware
Well that's a nice sunday prayer TB. You at the ranch this weekend?
ReplyDeleteIs it not Glen? As I am working my way through the bare basics of Orthodox Christianity, I am finding an entire new corpus of work I never knew existed.
ReplyDeleteNo Sir, still in New Home. Will not be heading back until the end of the month.
For some, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit within them is almost imperceptible; like the tide rising in the salt marsh. For others, it's a flash flood. For me it was the latter. One cannot forget that kind of experience!
ReplyDelete...And for those wondering, your prayer illustrates that... all you need to do is ask... and MEAN it!...
Pete, I find myself to be in the same mold (for whatever reason) as David Brainerd, 18th Century North American missionary. He seems to almost never have felt the Holy Spirit, yet he continued on.
DeleteIt is something I have experienced infrequently if at all.
Unusual; but wonderful.
ReplyDeleteIt is Linda. Apparently he was one of the first Orthodox mystics to write about his experiences. I wish I understood mysticism more.
Delete