This continues our translation of Father Lev Gillet’s meditation on the mystery of divine love, which he published under the pseudonym, “A Monk of the Eastern Church.” As with the preceding chapters, it represents a dialogue between God and the soul, between the Author and Source of divine love, and the human creature who longs to be embraced by that love.
“There was an evening and a morning…”
No less than six times in the first chapter of the first sacred book of the Hebrews, God is represented creating the days of the week and setting evening as the time at which the day begins.
The way people today count time is not Your way, O Lord. Instinctively, they tend to start the day with morning. The day begins with the pale light of daybreak. Then comes the joy of dawn, the rising of the sun, the splendor of noonday, the sunset and shadows of evening, the sadness of the twilight hours, and finally the tangible tragedy and the terrors of darkness.
With You, O Lord, it is very different. You declare that first there was evening, and only then did morning appear.
Your day begins in the evening hours, in nocturnal obscurity. Then it progresses toward morning, toward the light, toward the incandescence of the Burning Bush and of the midday sun.
Thus it is with our love. It always begins in obscurity, in weakness, uncertain and threatened. Gradually it progresses in strength towards the brilliance of Love without limits.
Without doubt, the evening will return once again. Yet an immense gulf separates the vision of a day declining toward night, from the image of a day that rises toward morning.
What truly matters, O Lord, is the meaning You attribute to the movement that marks each day. You make a symbol of the order it follows, from darkness to light. From the beginning of Creation, You have directed the evolution of time toward Your own luminous fullness. You guide us toward the Morning.
O Lord, grant me to be more conscious of the movement inherent in my days. Despite the obscurities that can darken each moment, grant me an intuition and an unceasing movement toward the rising of the Sun of Love. Open wide the door of my hope to the approaching Day of Your Kingdom, a Day that will know no evening.
Morning Dew
“My child,” God says, “I want you to feel yourself in communion with my splendid universe, with its uncertain aspirations, its unexpressed thanksgivings. I want above all, especially in those moments when you seek to become one with boundless Love, that you be perfectly humble.
You have often seen morning dew. It places sparkling jewels on blades of grass and on leaves, shortly before the rising of the sun. Dew is abundant there where the earth is humble and open, when the weather is clear and there reigns a perfect calm. Each iridescent droplet reproduces the colors of the rainbow. However tiny it may be, it reflects the elementary colors of the universe.
My child, become yourself this tiny drop of dew, born on a terrain of gentle tenderness, as the sun rises in a heart filled with love. Become this drop which, in all its minuteness yet as well as it can, reflects the beauty of the world.
Then allow yourself to be absorbed into the light and the warmth of the sun. For it is the sun that brings forth drops of dew.
From the Morning, O Lord…
This morning, O Lord of Love, let my very first word rise toward You, to bless Your Holy Name!
I believe, I feel, at the beginning of this day, that Your abundant Goodness is descending upon all that exists. The source of Love continues to pour forth, even when it seems that we can find nothing around us but evil and suffering. Either visibly or in secret, You never tire of helping, of loving. Today, once again, You will struggle for us.
We await from You, O Lord, the grace we need for this day. Together with material bread, give us heavenly nourishment, the pure wheat of Your inexhaustible Love, the true substance of our life. With full trust, we people of little faith surrender into Your hands our practical difficulties, our hurts, our fears.
We have no help other than Your Love. Apart from that Love, we have no other hope. May it guide our steps throughout this day, like a column of light that penetrates the apparent darkness!
O Lord, in all that comes to us from You we perceive Your life given, sacrificed. He who is Saving Love deigned to suffer for us, willed to die for us. Grant me to share His desire to give to others the life I have received.
O Lord, may the purifying actions of the Savior who is Love purify my soul of my many sins! Unite around Your Love and in Your Love those who know You, those who seek You without knowing you, and those whom You Yourself seek. We long to be with You… Take us!