Effortlessly,

Love flows from God into man,

Like a bird

Who rivers the air

Without moving her wings.

Thus we move in His world,

One in body and soul,

Though outwardly separate in form.

As the Source strikes the note,

Humanity sings-

The Holy Spirit is our harpist,

And all strings

Which are touched in Love

Must sound.

Mechtild of Magdeburg

The Madness of Love

Is a blessed fate;

And if we understood this

We would seek no other:

It brings into unity

What was divided,

And this is the truth:

Bitterness it makes sweet,

It makes the stranger a neighbor,

And what was lowly it raises on high.

Hadewijch of Antwerp

The Walls Do Now Fall

Amen,

Only just now,

My heart-shell

Breaks open,

Though long ago, the phoenix,

Your bennu bird

Dropped a grain,

As of scalding wax;

There was a fragrance, burnt incense,

Myrtle, aloes, cedar;

The Kingdom is a Tree

Whose roots bind the heart-husk

To earth,

After the ultimate grain,

Lodged in the heart-core, 

Has taken its nourishment.

H.D. 203