Thanks Doron for the Kaddish info and as you no doubt suspect, I will now fly off on a whim and a buckle.
II.43
Holy is your name, holy is your work, holy are the days that return to you. Holy are the years that you uncover. Holy are the hands that are raised to you, and the weeping that is wept to you. Holy is the fire between your will and ours, in which we are refined. Holy is that which is unredeemed, covered with your patience. Holy are the souls lost in you unnaming. Holy, and shining with a great light, is every living thing, established in this world and covered with time, until your name is praised forever.
These lines above take me to a number of mystic encounters by poets. Particularly this line;
“Holy is the fire between your will and ours, in which we are refined.”
...a few poems/poets come to mind, but for me Hopknis’ “Windhover” and Cruz’s "Dark Night of the Soul" dominate my reflections, right this moment.
Hopkins wrote of that “here buckle” moment when a bird buckled him to God (and the word "buckle"; so many meanings!) and the "fire" Leonard talks of above.
...“AND the
fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and
blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and
gash gold-vermillion.”
(
http://www.bartleby.com/122/12.html)
Many times San Juan de la Cruz utilizes the metaphor of the Soul being purged and purified in burning coals/fire in his commentary on his poem “Dark night of the Soul”. One example below;
“On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings--oh, happy chance!--
...Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart.
This light guided me More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me
...I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.”
(
http://www.ecatholic2000.com/stjohn/drknt3.shtml)
Cruz goes on to say;
“This was a great happiness and a good chance for me; for, when the faculties had been perfectly annihilated and calmed, together with the passions, desires and affections of my soul, wherewith I had experienced and tasted God after a lowly manner, I went forth from my own human dealings and operations to the operations and dealings of God. That is to say, my understanding went forth from itself, turning from the human and natural to the Divine; for, when it is united with God by means of this purgation, its understanding no longer comes through its natural light and vigour, but through the Divine Wisdom wherewith it has become united.
And my will went forth from itself, becoming Divine; for, being united with Divine love, it no longer loves with its natural strength after a lowly manner, but with strength and purity from the Holy Spirit;
and thus the will, which is now near to God, acts not after a human manner, and similarly the memory
has become transformed into eternal apprehensions of glory.
And finally, by means of this night and purgation of the old man, all the energies and affections of the soul are
wholly renewed into a Divine temper and Divine delight.”
(
http://www.ecatholic2000.com/stjohn/drknt12.shtml)
How, although this night brings darkness to the spirit, it does so in order to illumine it and give it light.
(
http://www.ecatholic2000.com/stjohn/drknt15.shtml)
and Cruz goes on to elaborate the fire-y purgation; (gashing 'gold-vermillion' as Hopkins famously puts it)
FOR the greater clearness of what has been said, and of what has still to be said, it is well to observe at this point that this purgative and loving knowledge or Divine light whereof we here speak acts upon the soul which it is purging and preparing for perfect union with it in the same way as fire acts upon a log of wood in order to transform it into itself; for material fire, acting upon wood, first of all begins to dry it, by driving out its moisture and causing it to shed the water which it contains within itself. Then it begins to make it black, dark and unsightly, and even to give forth a bad odour, and, as it dries it little by little, it brings out and drives away all the dark and unsightly accidents which are contrary to the nature of fire. And, finally, it begins to kindle it externally and give it heat, and at last transforms it into itself and makes it as beautiful as fire. In this respect, the wood has neither passivity nor activity of its own,
holy is the fire
"...Holy are the souls lost in you unnaming. "
Good point you make above Steven. And as souls lose themselves "between the Nameless and the Name" (unnaming) they may be fortunate enough to venture through that dark night and into "Holy" itself by that process Leonard refers to as "unnaming"/un-naming; "in formless circumstance".
or as Leonard says in #43 above,
“Holy is the fire between your will and ours, in which we are refined."
'wholly renewed into a Divine temper and Divine delight.' (Cruz)
matbbgJ
"Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart." San Juan de la Cruz.
