Jacopone da Todi

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1:At the cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping, Close to Jesus to the last: Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, All his bitter anguish bearing, Now at length the sword had passed. [1364.jpg] -- from All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time, by Robert Ellsberg

~ Jacopone da Todi, At the cross her station keeping (from Stabat Mater Dolorosa)
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2:author class:Jacopone da Todi
Love, where did You enter the heart unseen? Lovable Love, joyful Love, unthinkable Love, In Your plenitude You lie far beyond the reach of reason. Love, jocund and joyous, Divine fire, You do not stint Of your endlessly beautiful riches. [2229.jpg] -- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

~ where did You enter the heart unseen? (from In Praise of Divine Love)
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3:author class:Jacopone da Todi
When you no longer love yourself But love Goodness, You and your Beloved will become one. When you love Him, He must love you in return; In His charity you are drawn to Him And the two are made one. This is true union That admits of no divisions. [2229.jpg] -- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

~ you no longer love yourself (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul...)
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4:Now, a new creature, I in Christ am born, The old man stripped away; -- I am new-made; And mounting in me, like the sun at morn, Love breaks my heart, even as a broken blade: Christ, First and Only Fair, from me hath shorn My will, my wits, and all that in me stayed, I in His arms am laid, I cry and call -- 'O Thou my All, O let me die of Love!' [1364.jpg] -- from All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time, by Robert Ellsberg

~ Jacopone da Todi, Now, a new creature
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5:author class:Jacopone da Todi
Love, infusing with light all who share Your splendor, You teach us the true light Is not to be found in the light of this world. Light that enlightens, light that teaches, He who is not illumined by You Does not reach the fullness of love. Love, You give light To the intellect in darkness And illumine the Object of love. Love, Your ardor, Which enflames the heart, Unites it with the Incarnate One. [2229.jpg] -- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

~ infusing with light all who share Your splendor (from In Praise of Divine Love)
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6:author class:Jacopone da Todi
Oh, the futility of seeking to convey With images and feelings That which surpasses all measure! The futility of seeking To make infinite powers ours! Thought cannot come to certainty of belief And there is no likeness of God That is not flawed. Hence, if He should call you, Let yourself be drawn to Him. He may lead you to a great truth. Do not dwell on yourself, nor should you -- A creature subject to multiplicity and change -- seek Him; Rest in tranquility, loftier than action or feeling, And you will find that as you lose yourself He will give you strength. [2229.jpg] -- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

~ the futility of seeking to convey (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul...)
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7:As air carries light poured out by the rising sun, As the candle spills away beneath the flame's touch, So too does the soul melt when ignited by light, its will now gone. Lost within this light, the soul, dying to itself, in majesty lives on. Why fish among the waves for wine Spilled into the sea? It has become the ocean. Can wine once mingled be drawn again from the water? So it is with the soul drowned in light: Love has drunk it in, changed it, mixed it with truth, until it is entirely new. The soul is willing and yet unwilling, For there is nothing the soul now seeks, save for this beauty! No longer does it hunger or grasp, so emptied by such sweetness. This supreme summit of the soul rises from a nothingness shaped and set within the Lord. [2720.jpg] -- from This Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World, Edited by Ivan M. Granger

~ Jacopone da Todi, As air carries light poured out by the rising sun
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8:author class:Jacopone da Todi
In losing all, the soul has risen To the pinnacle of the measureless; Because it has renounced all That is not divine, It now holds in its grasp The unimaginable Good In all its abundance, A loss and a gain impossible to describe. To lose and to hold tightly, To love and take delight in, To gaze upon and contemplate, To possess utterly, To float in that immensity And to rest therein -- That is the work of unceasing exchange Of charity and truth. There is no other action at those heights; What the questing soul once was it has ceased to be. Neither heat nor fiery love Nor suffering has place here. This is not light as the soul has imagined it. All it had sought it must now forget, And pass on to a new world, Beyond its powers of perception. [2229.jpg] -- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

~ losing all, the soul has risen (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul...)
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9:O Love, divine Love, why do You lay siege to me? In a frenzy of love for me, You find no rest. From five sides You move against me, Hearing, sight, taste, touch, and scent. To come out is to be caught; I cannot hide from You. If I come out through sight I see Love Painted in every form and color, Inviting me to come to You, to dwell in You. If I leave through the door of hearing, What I hear points only to You, Lord; I cannot escape Love through this gage. If I come out through taste, every flavor proclaims: "Love, divine Love, hungering Love! You have caught me on Your hook, for you want to reign in me." If I leave through the door of scent I sense You in all creation; You have caught me And wounded me through that fragrance. If I come out through the sense of touch I find Your lineaments in every creature; To try to flee from You is madness. [2229.jpg] -- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

~ Jacopone da Todi, How the Soul Through the Senses Finds God in All Creatures
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10:author class:Jacopone da Todi
Love beyond all telling, Goodness beyond imagining, Light of infinite intensity Glows in my heart. I once thought that reason Had led me to You, And that through feeling I sensed Your presence, Caught a glimpse of You in similitudes, Knew You in Your perfection. I know now that I was wrong, That that truth was flawed. Light beyond metaphor, Why did You deign to come into this darkness? Your light does not illumine those who think they see You And believe they sound Your depths. Night, I know now, is day, Virtue no more to be found. He who witnesses Your splendor Can never describe it. On achieving their desired end Human powers cease to function, And the soul sees that what it thought was right Was wrong. A new exchange occurs At that point where all light disappears; A new and unsought state is needed: The soul has what it did not love, And is stripped of all it possessed, no matter how dear. In God the spiritual faculties Come to their desired end, Lose all sense of self and self-consciousness, And are swept into infinity. The soul, made new again, Marveling to find itself In that immensity, drowns. How this comes about it does not know. [2229.jpg] -- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

~ beyond all telling (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul...)
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