"I," in Christ Arisen

"I," in Christ Arisen

THE THIRTEEN STANZAS

I

Soul of “good will,”you who go with groans

seeking through other ways

the happiness you have left in your Creator.

Why do you insist on “walking” on your own

without knowing the way and the dangers

you are going to encounter?

Blind you go, not knowing

that the infinite is your happiness,

that you are “nothing”

and on your own you cannot arrive!

II

God has a “Vehicle”

that is at your disposal,

which is the Spirit of Truth

and only he can take you.

He is infinite Ocean

whom you will never exhaust.

III

Let yourself be attracted, plunge into him,

let go of your footing,

love the good and the truth,

trust, and think of nothing else,

for he himself will lead you.

Faith, love, and trust – this will suffice.

IV

Don’t try to know him by judging his ways,

because you will never succeed.

One day he will be as an impetuous wind

that will blow you around as a little dry leaf.

V

Another day, as divine Eagle

by your neck he will take you with his beak

and he will carry you through the desert

where no consolations you will be able to find

and many temptations will come to you.

VI

Heed not the “desert”

and in the temptations be faithful to your God.

Love and trust, even though you have falls.

Think of the One who carries you

and he himself will lift you up.

This is the way and through this way

you have to arrive.

VII

If inside the belly of a whale,

like Jonah, you sometimes feel,

doubt not that this also is he,

who submersed in the sea

carries you to shore, hidden in his bosom,

so that the wild beasts cannot touch you.

VIII

If one day you feel like a stone, hard and cold,

and you cannot love,

he is the Rock, and he carries you in his bosom

so that the tempest may not touch you;

keep on trusting, for this is the way

and through another you will never arrive.

IX

If you come to feel that your passions are burning

as a bonfire you cannot quench,

he is the fire that wants to purify you.

Unite yourself to the Immaculate Host,

offer yourself as victim that immolates itself

on the altar of sacrifice,

because you are drawing near to your Creator.

The purer your desire to offer yourself,

the sooner the holocaust will reach Him.

Doubt not that this is the way

and you are closer than you were yesterday.

X

If after suffering a little

you feel flooded by a sublime joy,

doubt not that he is your rest,

and he invites you to rest.

Love, rejoice,

but do not become attached to the joy

because you still have a long way to go

where thorns and aridities will not be lacking.

XI

Now your Guide begins to reveal himself;

he has given you a foretaste of his joy,

but your rest lies not in the “joy,”

but in the One to whom he leads you.

If you linger in the taste of the joy,

forget not that you will lose your “rest”;

he invites you to keep on going,

you are free to follow him or not.

XII

Toward the Cross he leads you

but you yourself have to choose it

for this Cross is “death” and “Life,”

Life of God, which with the death of the “I”

you will be acquiring.

If you decide to enter into the Cross,

“to die” you must decide as well

and this has to be done freely:

your life for His Life,

as He gave his life for you

to give you the Life

.

XIII

If you choose the Cross,

let yourself be nailed to it:

“My food is to do the Will of Him who sent me.”

Do not go sampling other “food,”

 for it alone is your strength

for accepting the “death”

that will give you a new life.

Then you will know the One who was your way,

because in Him you will be moved,

and you will live in perfect communion

with the Father and the Son

in their same Spirit,

that Vehicle

who was your Guide.