Madame Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717)

Love of God

All are indebted much to thee,
But I far more than all,
From many a deadly snare set free,
And raised from many a fall.
Overwhelm me, from above,
Daily, with thy boundless love.

What bonds of gratitude I feel
No language can declare;
Beneath the oppressive weight I reel,
'Tis more than I can bear:
When shall I that blessing prove,
To return thee love for love?

Spirit of charity, dispense
Thy grace to every heart;
Expel all other spirits thence,
Drive self from every part;
Charity divine, draw nigh,
Break the chains in which we lie!

All selfish souls, whate'er they feign,
Have still a slavish lot;
They boast of liberty in vain,
Of love, and feel it not.
He whose bosom glows with thee,
He, and he alone, is free.

Oh blessedness, all bliss above,
When thy pure fires prevail!
Love only teaches what is love:
All other lessons fail:
We learn its name, but not its powers,
Experience only makes it ours.

               a poem by Madame  Guyon

taken from Thirty-seven poems by Guyon translated by William Cowper (1779) from a French collection published in 1722, Poesies et cantiques 

Visit the Living Water bio for Madame Guyon

"Everything is Grace."

 











Saint Therese the Little Flower Speaks

 "Jesus does not so much look at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them." 

"I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul." 

 "How happy I am to see myself as imperfect and to be in need of God's mercy." 

 "Do not fear to tell Jesus that you love Him even without feeling it. That is the way to force Jesus to help you, to carry you like a little child too feeble to walk."

 "For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus."

 "Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude."

 "It is only love which makes us acceptable to God."

 "What offends Him and what wounds His Heart is the lack of confidence...Your heart is made to love Jesus, to love Him passionately...We have only the short moments of our life to love Jesus!"

 Whispered to a novice while standing in front of the convent library: "Oh! I would have been sorry to have read all those books...If I had read them, I would have broken my head, and I would have wasted precious time that I could have employed very simply in loving God."


In loving memory of Brother John Henry Tilma 

Spiritual life

Spiritual life is like living water 
that springs up from the very depths 
of our own spiritual experience.  
In spiritual life everyone has to drink 
from his or her own well.  

~  St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Love makes us speak

Love makes us speak; 

love makes us moan;

love makes us die; 
love brings us to life; 

love makes us drunk and bewildered; 

it sometimes makes one a king.

Love and the lover have no rigid doctrine. 

Whichever direction the lover takes, 

he turns toward his beloved. 

Wherever he may be, he is with his beloved. 

Wherever he goes, he goes with his beloved.

He cannot do anything, cannot 
survive for even one moment, without his beloved.

He constantly recalls his beloved as his beloved remembers him. 

Lover and beloved, rememberer and remembered, 

are ever in each other's company, always together. 

~Sheikh Muzaffer

Sufi mystic 

Much of sufi poetry and imagery is reflective of the Song of 

Solomon in that it places God as the Beloved and the seeker 

as the intoxicated lover and concerns it's self with the union

of the lover and the beloved.

Psalm 139:7-12

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths,
 you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side 
of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 
even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,
 for darkness is as light to you. 

 graphic:  rach.users.livejournal.com

If I ever needed someone

Lord if I ever needed someone,
 I need You 
Lord  I ever needed someone, 
I need You   
To see me through the daytime 
 And through the long lonely night 
 To lead me through the darkness 
 And on into the light
 
To stand with me when I'm troubled 
And help me through my strife  
When times get so uncertain to turn to You  
Turn to You in my young life
 
Lord if I ever needed someone,
 I need You  
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You
 
Someone to hold onto  
And keep me from all fear 
Someone to be my guiding light 
And keep me ever dear
 
To keep me from my selfishness 
 To keep me from my sorrow  
 To lead me on to givingness 
 So I can see a new tomorrow 
 
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You  
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You
 
Someone to walk with  
Oh someone to hold by the hand  
Someone to talk with  
Someone to understand, yeah, yeah
 
Oh, when I need You Yeah
, I need You very much  
To open up my arms to You 
Feel Your tender touch
 
To feel it and to keep it 
To the right here in my soul 
 And care for it and keep it with me 
 Never to grow old
 
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You 
Lord if I ever needed someone,
 I need You 
 Lord if I ever needed someone, I need You

                              Van Morrison

If i ever needed someone Van Morrison unplugged 

 Van Morrison, is an  Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are described as transcendental^.  Some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moon dance and the live album It's to Late to Stop Now are critically acclaimed and appear at the top of many greatest album lists.

To Love is to reach God.

To Love is to reach God.
Never will a Lover's chest 
feel any sorrow.
Never will a Lover's robe 
be touched by mortals.
Never will a Lover's body 
be found buried in the earth.
To Love is to reach God. 

~Rumi 

                          Translated by: Shahram Shiva

 Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, 
and more popularly in the English-speaking world simply as Rumi, was a 
13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. 

All things are full of God

ALL things are full of God. Thus spoke  
  Wise Thales in the days  
When subtle Greece to thought awoke  
  And soared in lofty ways.  
And now what wisdom have we more?        
  No sage divining-rod  
Hath taught than this a deeper lore,  
  ALL THINGS ARE FULL OF GOD.  
  
The Light that gloweth in the sky  
  And shimmers in the sea,        
That quivers in the painted fly  
  And gems the pictured lea,  
The million hues of Heaven above  
  And Earth below are one,  
And every lightful eye doth love         
  The primal light, the Sun.  
  
Even so, all vital virtue flows  
  From life's first fountain, God;  
And he who feels, and he who knows,  
  Doth feel and know from God.         
As fishes swim in briny sea,  
  As fowl do float in air,  
>From Thy embrace we cannot flee;  
  We breathe, and Thou art there.  
  
Go, take thy glass, astronomer,         
  And all the girth survey  
Of sphere harmonious linked to sphere,  
  In endless bright array.  
All that far-reaching Science there  
  Can measure with her rod,         
All powers, all laws, are but the fair  
  Embodied thoughts of God. 

                           By John Stuart Blackie 

John Stuart Blackie (28 July 1809 – 2 March 1895) was a Scottish scholar and man of letters.

What do you want me to do

 

And I've tried to do what people say 
And I'm going nowhere fast\
And I'm turning to you at last
 
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord?
 
I can see the lights of home
But I can't get there on my own  
I can see the landing strip 
But I need you to steer my ship
 
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord?
 
I've been a fool and I've been a clown  
I let the enemy turn me around 
I've wasted love and I've wasted time  
I've been proud and I've been blind
 

What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord?
I've got a lot of things to change 
A whole man to rearrange 
And if you show me how  
I'll begin right now
 
What do you want me to do? 
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord? 
What do you want me to do, Lord?
 What do you want me to do, Lord?
 
I'm listening 
          I'm listening  
                    I'm listening 
                             I'm listening  
                                      I'm listening

 Mike Scott

What do you want me to do video: 

 Michael 'Mike' Scott is the founding member, lead singer and songwriter of The Waterboys. He has also produced two solo albums, Bring 'em All In and Still Burning.

In the golden city of the heart

In the golden city of the heart dwells
The Lord of Love, without parts, without stain.
Know him as the radiant light of lights.

There shines not the sun, neither moon nor star,
Nor flash of lightning, nor fire lit on earth.
The Lord is the light reflected by all.
He shining, everything shines after him.

Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.10-11

For more background about The Mundaka Upanishad: (Sanskrit: मुण्डक उपनिषद्, Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad) or the Mundakopanishad (Sanskrit: मुण्डकोपनिषद्, Muṇḍakopaniṣad) 

is one of the earlier, "primary" (mukhya) Upanishads, a genre of Hindu scriptures 

commented upon by Shankara. It is associated with the Atharvaveda.  

It figures as number 5 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed hardened lips
Felt the healing fingertips
It burned like a fire
This burning desire

I have spoke with eternal angels
I have held the hands of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the Kingdom Come
When all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well, yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds
And you loosened the chains
Carried the cross
Of all my shame
all my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

 U2

                                      graphic: healing of the blind man 

still havn't found what i'm looking for video

  U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976,U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music.

The Song of Solomon Chapter 5

I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse:
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends;
drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
I sleep, but my heart waketh:
it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying,
Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled:
for my head is filled with dew,
and my locks with the drops of the night.
I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on?
I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door,
and my bowels were moved for him.
I rose up to open to my beloved;
and my hands dropped with myrrh,
and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh,
upon the handles of the lock.
I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself,
and was gone: my soul failed when he spake:
I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.
The watchmen that went about the city found me,
they smote me, they wounded me;
the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.
What is thy beloved more than another beloved,
O thou fairest among women?
what is thy beloved more than another beloved,
that thou dost so charge us?
My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
His head is as the most fine gold,
his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.
His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters,
washed with milk, and fitly set.
His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers:
his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl:
his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold:
his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.


graphic: Lover and Beloved (Kajuraho, Bhopal Mu


  The Song of Songs of Solomon, commonly referred to as Song of SongsSong of Solomon, is a book of the Old Testament . It is also known in English as Canticle of Canticles or simply Canticles. For me the Song of Solomon has always typified the yearning in the human soul for the mystical union of the beloved and the lover, the divine presence and the human heart. Besides it works as great erotic love poetry as well.