The Mystical Sparrow of St. John of the Cross

 

san juan de la cruz

Art source unknown

 

“Lost in the fathomless abyss of God.”
~ The Spiritual Canticle

Distantly pure and high, a mountain sparrow
is solitary in transfigured sky.
A ball of bird melodious with God
is lightsome in its love.
Not to dear mate or comrade do I cry
but to my own remote identity
who knows my spirit as divinely summoned
to gain that perch where no horizons lie.

Here is the king’s secret scattered when I focus
unworthy song on one small eremite
lost in infinities of airy desert
where love is breathed out of the breast of light.

For call, for meeting-place, good end and rest
each has a symbol; each invokes a sign.
I take a bird in vastness and on height
to mark my love. It sings its jubilation
alone upon the housetop of creation
where earth’s last finger touches the divine.

~ A poem by Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit (Jessica Powers) O.C.D.

 

 

Happy & Blessed Feast of Saint John of the Cross!

Discalced Carmelite, Reformer, Doctor of the Church, Mystic and Poet

 

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