Songs From The Canticles
              Contributed

n the night I sought my Beloved.
I could not find Him because I sought Him
  away from myself.
All through the night He was waiting for me,
To love Him.
I asked my friends, “Where is my Beloved?”
And they said, “Behold He is there,” 
  “Behold He is there.”
And I looked but I could not find Him.
I did not understand the Love of my Beloved.
I did not understand His Love could not bear
  to leave His beloved.
Why did the keepers of the city not tell me
  my Beloved could not bear to leave His beloved?
I did not know my Beloved was myself
And I looked for money to buy that which was
  already mine.
Why did the keepers of the city not tell me
  where my Beloved is?
My Beloved caresses me with hands of blood.

             v

he Love of my Beloved
Is the Kiss of his mouth
Destroying me as He embraces me.
In the embrace of my Beloved
I am the nothingness
Which is the Word without the Father.
When my Beloved kisses me with the Kiss of his mouth
The Father adores His Son
In my nothingness.
Let Him kiss me with the Kiss of His mouth
  for they breasts are better than wine.

             v

   y Beloved to me is a tower of black silence
He is the memory of my sins
All through the day His angry silence
Turns from me weeping in my heart
My tongue is rigid in my mouth
Now a stranger to His Name Who is my Life
Even that single ray of love I may not have,
The knowledge that I ask,
Now my wisdom is a hard bone to break my teeth
And all God’s Love the mocking of voices
Asking me, “Where is your God?”
“Now save yourself!”

             v

   y beloved is the Power of my soul,
In Him my weakness is His Strength;
All through the day My Beloved shows me my misery,
Calling me to Himself, embracing me in the bitterness
  of my sins.
Therefore my Beloved to me is a bundle of myrrh,
His Love to me is as the Love of the Father,
Embracing me as I am forsaken,
Drawing me to His Heart as He rejects me’
All through the day I weep the bitterness
Which is honey and milk in His mouth.
My Beloved abides between my breasts
Where I comfort Him, giving rest to His Heart,
  for in the night He goes about seeking those
  who would comfort Him
And He is alone and desolate.
And therefore I bring Him my desolation to comfort Him;
He is comforted only when I am desolate and forsaken.
When I am dead with my Beloved on the Cross
I bring forth His children to Him;
When I am in hell because of my sins,
Heaven is filled with His fruits and His flowers.

           v

  he Kiss of my Father, now,
Is the peace of my soul in Mary, In Him His little creature knows no bitterness.
He smiles on me
And the strength of His Love
Melts the hardness of my being,
The miseries of the past and the cares of the future
Flow away—all,
And now, in Him
I am become a little-of-the-valley,
In my Father, in Mary,
I adore my brothers and sisters,
And they adore me
In Jesus,
As the Father feeds among us,
Taking His delight among the children of men;
Our delight, each in the other,
Is the delight of the Father in His Beloved Son
In Whom He is well pleased.

        v   v   v

I
T
T
M
M