A Monk's Life

To rejoice without purpose in the darkness

To plunge beneath the earth and retrieve shades

To await the emergence of the light

        from the bosom of night

To be astounded at each day’s rebirth

To love the piercing light

To be gladdened by the least leaf’s tremor

        in the first breeze of dawn

To hear with kindred thrill the merry racket

        of warbling summer songsters

To make your whole chest gape as a wide window

        for all the sky’s swift traffic to flow through

To thank for the invention of all flowers

        by scattering your life’s bouquet

To feel in your veins melt down the rigid

        border between eternity and time

To sense future and past embrace in one fond kiss

        in the keen breath of Now

To have your heart play host to a new fire

        that frightens as it burns

        and brightens as it yearns

To jolt at midnight pierced by another’s pain

To bear about the ocean in your heart

To hurl past loves into the Heart of God

To see all the world’s faces focus into One Face

To sit in empty silence and so await the fullness

To smile at nothing in particular

To work as if you played and pray as if you flew

To watch as if you slept and fast as if you ate

To know that you are I am you are I am we

To be as if you weren’t:

… a monk’s life.

Such is the nature of our lives as monks, as we fall backwards into the transforming embrace of Christ's mercy. 

Meditation composed by Father Simeon.