Friday, January 05, 2007

Light and Fire and Fleshly Vault


  • January 5, 2007. Alice Linsley, in a mediation on the Epiphany(below), wrote this:

  • "I had the following dream, unlike my usual dreams, which are narrative. This dream was iconic.
    I stood beneath a dark vault of sky and suddenly a huge star shot from the east and shone immediately over the center and I heard a voice say, "I am the Light in the tabernacle." Then the sky changed to the Virgin's pregnant belly where a ball of fire spun and I heard: "I am the Fire that does not consume the Virgin's vault."
    Wow! Lord, have mercy on me."

  • Her words stirred something very deep, and a poem had to come.


    Light and Fire and Fleshly Vault
  • A Star!
    A light blazing on high!
    A radiance dimming every light,
    in the brightness of its shining,
    and lighting every darkness lurking
    in the shadows of a sinful world.
    A voice!
    A Voice!
    The Voice!
    Resounding through the heavens,
    filling Earth,
    shaking hearts,
    proclaiming glory,
    and the fullness of the Presence:
    “I am the Light
    of the Tabernacle
    of the Most High!”
    A vault!
    A womb!
    A Mother swollen with the holy Fire,
    the Fire that burns away the ugly sin,
    destroys the work of fallen angels,
    and takes flesh.
    “I am the Fire,” says he,
    “that does not consume
    what I have ordained.”
    “That does not consume,” says He,
    the holy Virgin’s vault,
    but takes its flesh to be My own.”
    And God said, “Let there be Light!”
    And there was Light.”
  • ------------ed pacht

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Today I attended an Epiphany service at Church of the Ascension (Anglican Catholic Church (ACC)) in Northern Virginia, attended by folks from congregations in four different jurisdictions. Two priests from the ACC, two from the Episcopal Missionary Church (EMC), and one from the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) concelebrated, with one of the EMC clergy preaching a real stemwinder of a sermon. An Archdeacon from the Congregation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) was also present. As a recent CANA member (unyoked from TEC, praise Jesus), this was the first time I had attended a service involving multiple parts of the anglican continuum. Is this typical? I had a blast afterwards talking to the folks from all the different jurisdictions!

Alice C. Linsley said...

A lovely poem, Ed. Thank you!