RSCJ International - Song of Songs: call to intimacy, austerity, ministry

Song of Songs: call to intimacy, austerity, ministry

06 Feb 05

Irma Dillard rscj

Come, my love, my lovely one, come!
Winter is over; springtime is here.
Come from your hiding place.
I want to hear your song of love,
  delight in your face
  radiant with love,
  with being loved.

In a garden enclosed
let us act out love:
  This is my Body given for you.
  This is my body given for you.

Heart melts
Fear dissipates
Hope returns
Anger dissolves
Loneliness is transformed into longing.
  I stand on the edge of happiness:
  Ecstatic joy!
  Eternal hope!
  Present reality:
     My Beloved is mine and I am His!

'Bound thus'
in marriage mystic,
we are
  one for the other,
  yes, forever
  yes, without condition...

DEEP SPEAKS UNTO DEEP
and in that garden
  I know!
    Wordless knowing
    kept
    for moments unfelt:
WOMAN IN COMMUNION - INTIMACY.

Commitment in loving though
is far beyond the feeling.
Gift given
    Gift received
    is love-making indeed!
    is decision
    to be for the other
    forever
    no matter.

A way of life it is,
  today and tomorrow...
  pointing towards that ultimate morrow
  where the sign of love is
  EVERYTHING - GIVEN!

In another garden, not far down the path
  my Beloved on a tree
  sings the song of Calvary;
  this time - in agony --
  so great is His love for me!

A different kind of embrace, indeed,
speaks the same reality:
  FEET FASTENED
  HANDS HELD
  NAKED, and
  HEART PIERCED

on a tree
not where one's preference would be
in agony and in ecstasy
He cries out again to me:
    This is my Body, given for thee.

He calls me to be 'stretched'
as He is for me
to the daily pain of loss - the Cross --
  stripped
    dependent
    confident
    emptied.
My grace-filled response can only be:
  This is my body, given for Thee.
    WOMAN IN COMMUNION - AUSTERITY.
    a JOY no one can take from me!

United, conformed, to your Heart of Love
Glorified on earth, also above,
  I choose this day
    the way
      of the Poor One.

But your invitation continues each day:
  The way of living
   is the way of dying
  to all that is not ME:
  Sign of 'Love-in-eternity'.
  'My grace is sufficient for thee.'

Radiant as 'God's loved woman'
    I come to the 'mountain of myrrh,
    to the hill of frankincense'.
    I sacrifice the beauty that is me -
     Empty, single-hearted, obedient.
     Agony, yes, but MYSTERY
       that the Cross can bring this ecstacy.
    I am in love!

  Unspoken words sing out to the world
  of 'Him whom I have met'!
  The God of Love is all to me;
  Good News for all to see:
  WOMAN IN COMMUNION - MINISTRY

Where the strength
  to live this faithful love?
    EUCHARIST:
    the place where intimacy and austerity meet:
    Communion
       in 'the now' and the 'not yet'.
    Your Word is my life;
    Your Body, my food.

Bridal Chamber to Calvary:
  Intimacy - Austerity - Ministry:
  This is My Body, given for thee;
  This is my body, given for Thee.

  'My Beloved is mine, and I am His.'