Canticle of the God-Loving Heart
—An Empyrean Hymn—
Lo, they who boast with measured lips and timid eyes,
“Behold, we fear the Lord, His hand a sword of flame;
Our souls constrained, our spirits shackled to the skies,
We tread in trembling awe, and speak His sacred name.”
But I—O radiant heavens, witness!—walk where sunlight spills
Upon the cedars’ ancient spires, and rivers quiver silver through the glade;
My heart, unshackled, leaps beyond their pale, constrained ills,
And drinks the living light, unbroken by their timid shade.
See how the storm exhales its might across the trembling land,
And winds, like seraph-choirs, lift prayers in soaring arcs;
I clasp His boundless face with each ungoverned hand,
And find in every leaf, in every surge, the universe of sparks.
They veil devotion in hushed halls, where gilded candles bend,
And whisper awe with careful, cautious tongues, afraid to leap;
I, in the orchards’ blaze and tempest’s rush, ascend and rend
The sky with love that wakes the stars from their eternal sleep.
O God, not fear but fervent joy shall be my shrine,
Not trembling shadow, but the sun’s unbroken, radiant fire;
Through lightning, through the night, through every pulse divine,
I offer all my being, soaring ever higher, ever higher.
See, every river, leaf, and storm is writ with Thine own hand,
And in their music, I discern the anthem of Thy grace;
I kneel not to dread, but in love’s audacious, endless band,
And in its vast and flaming circuit, find my perfect place.
O Life! O Death! O stars unnumbered, sing the hymn of hearts
Who love without the fear that dims the immortal flame;
For I am His, not bound by law or trembling mortal parts,
But blazing with the universe, and calling to His name.
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