Presence

May my heart rejoice in Your love, O Lord. Let me live each day anew.

Scripture

Song of Songs: 2:3-6

As an apple tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his intention toward me was love.
Sustain me with raisins,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.
O that his left hand were under my head
and that his right hand embraced me!

Reflection

The great mystic, St Teresa of Ávila, said that in the Song of Songs the Lord is teaching the soul how to pray. “Along how many paths, in how many ways, by how many methods you show us love! …in this Song of Songs you teach the soul what to say to you… We can make the Bride’s prayer our own.”
Can you imagine praying the Song of Songs, in all its loving, desiring, tactile language and imagery? If Teresa is right and this is the kind of language in which God longs to hear the soul speak, we may need to make a radical shift in our perception of what it is to love and be loved by God. Prayer as passionate seeking, as desolation in the absence of the beloved, and rapture in finding him – this kind of prayer seems utterly outside a day to day experience. It may even feel unnatural, irreverent. Perhaps it is not surprising that from the hundreds of Old Testament passages used in readings for Sundays and Holy Days in the Catholic Lectionary, not a single passage from the Song is included, and only two passages are used in the Revised Common Lectionary. And yet this tremendous song has always been accepted as Sacred Scripture.
The Song of Songs is echoed In the Eastern Orthodox Church. The services held from Sunday through Tuesday evening of Holy Week are called the “Bridegroom Services” because the central theme is “Behold, the Bridegroom Comes”. The Christ of the Passion is the Christ who is moving towards union with the beloved. He is also the Christ of the Second Coming, for whom we must be ready and prepared. Prominent in the ceremonies is the beautiful 9th century Hymn of Kassiani, which describes the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus. It is one of the great hymns of the Eastern Church. The unaccompanied chant resonates through the dimly lit church, dipping and soaring in great waves of sound, nuanced and passionate.
It isn’t difficult to imagine the woman in Simon’s house praying the Song of Songs. “How much better is your love than wine! The fragrance of your perfumes than all manner of spices!”

Prayer

Lord, I will now read the Song of Songs and hear your words, filled with love and yearning, spoken directly to me. I will pray it – not as a prayer of intercession – but as a prayer of communion.

Amen

Glory to you, Father, source of all being,

to you, Jesus, Word made flesh,

to you Holy Spirit, Comforter,

as it was before time began,

is now and shall be into the future.

Amen.