My Heart is an Open Wound with Love for Her

My Heart is an Open Wound with Love for Her
A poem by St. John of the Cross, a Benedictine mystic

A lone young shepherd lived in pain

withdrawn from pleasure and contentment,

his thoughts fixed on a shepherd-girl,

his heart an open wound with love.

He weeps, but not from the wound of love,

there is no pain in such affliction,

even though the heart is pierced;

he weeps in knowing he’s been forgotten.

That one thought: his shining one

has forgotten him, is such great pain

that he bows to brutal handling in a foreign land,

his heart an open wound with love.

The shepherd says: I pity the one

who draws herself back from my love,

and does not seek the joy of my presence,

though my heart is an open wound with love for her.

After a long time he climbed a tree,

and spread his shining arms,

and hung by them, and died,

his heart an open wound with love.

Arise, My Love

We adore you, Oh Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world. Last year, several of my fellow music majors put on a major concert of Buxtehude's cycle of cantatas, Membra Jesu Nostri. The cantatas each consist of a Scripture verse, followed by poetry of John Donne, which Buxtehude set to music. The poems are meditations on the wounded members of Christ's Crucified Body. This is the translation of the Latin text from the fourth cantata, To His Side. On my ten-day break this semester, I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland, where I saw the Cliffs of Moher. I had this piece running through my head as I was looking upon the Cliffs. Christ urges each of His children to come away to the cleft of the rock, to the cliff, to unite themselves to Him in His Passion and Death, for only if we die with Him shall we rise with Him. May we answer Christ's call and find refuge within His holy wounds, never to stray from His beloved side. Lord, give us the grace to follow you on the way of the Cross today and always!

“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff.” Song 2:13-14

~The Cliffs of Moher~

Greetings, side of my saviour,

In which the sweetness of honey lies concealed,

In which the power of love is revealed,

From which the spring of your blood gushes forth,

Which washes clean the besmirched heart.

Behold, I am approaching you,

Spare me, Jesus, if I fail.

With reverent visage

I come of my own free will to you,

To examine your wounds.

May my soul at the hour of death

Enter into your side, O Jesus,

When I pass away, may it enter into you,

So that it is not attacked by a wrathful lion,

But may forever remain with you. Amen.

A Hymn to God the Father

A Hymn to God the Father
By John Donne (1572-1631)

I. Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun,

    Which was my sin, though it were done before?

Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run,

    And do run still, though still I do deplore?

        When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,

                    For I have more.

II. Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won

    Others to sin, and made my sin their door?

Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun

    A year or two, but wallowed in a score?

        When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,

                    For I have more.

III. I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun

    My last thread, I shall perish on the shore ;

But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son

    Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore ;

        And having done that, Thou hast done ;

                    I fear no more.

For The Sake Of His Sorrowful Passion

A few images from my Rome pilgrimage.

For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

A statue from the church S. Andrea Delle Fratte Santuario Madonna del Miracolo in Rome

The Crucifix at the front of the church of St. Giustina, the burial place of St. Luke and the resting place of the relics of St. Matthias 

A Crucifix in the Church of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs