O Lord, most dear mystery of my soul, how light is this world, when I weigh it on the scales against Thee!
On one side of the scales a lake of molten gold, and on the other a cloud of smoke.
All my cares, with my body and its mad convulsions of sweetness and bitterness, what are they but smoke, beneath which my soul swims upon the golden lake?
How shall I confess to men the mystery that I behold through the circles of Thine archangels? How shall I speak to the parts about the whole? How shall the nails on the fingers understand the coursing of the body's blood? Truly, it is hard for one struck dumb by wonder to speak to those made deaf by clamor.
First there was birth, and then creation. As a wondrous thought is born in man inaudibly and mysteriously, and the born thought thereafter creates, so inaudibly and mysteriously was the All-Man born in Thee, the Only-Begotten, who thereafter created all that God can create.
In Thy untroubled virginity, by the action of the All-Holy Spirit, the Son was born. That is the birth of God from above.
As above, so below — said the ancients. What happened in heaven happened also on earth. What happened in Eternity happened also in time.
Thou art dear to me, O my Love, because Thou art a mystery to me. And every love burns and is not consumed while the mystery lasts. A mystery revealed is a love burnt out. I vow to Thee eternal love, as Thou vowest to me eternal mystery.
Thou hast clothed Thyself in the seven heavens; Thou hast hidden Thyself too deep for all eyes. Were all the suns to flow together into one eye, it could not burn through all Thy veils. Thou hast not hidden Thyself on purpose, O Great Lord, but through our imperfection. The creature, divided and fragmented, does not see Thee. Only from him art Thou not hidden who has become one with Thee. From him Thou art not hidden, for whom the wall between I and Thou has been torn down.
O Lord, most dear mystery of my soul, how light is this world, when I weigh it on the scales against Thee.
On one side of the scales a lake of molten gold, and on the other a cloud of smoke.