The Demands of Prevenient Grace
O Lord of Love, I beg you, don’t go so fast! I can’t keep up with you. You’re moving too quickly for me. Wait for me, let me catch up to you! Still, Lord, you have not stopped, you have not even slowed down.
Lord, I see you coming toward my house. Don’t trouble yourself to come to me; I’ll come as quickly as I can to you. We can talk along the way, and even stop for a while. That would be much less tiring for me (and I would feel much less bothered!). But there you are, already at my gate!
Lord, I’m too unworthy to receive you into my home. Yet you have already opened the front door; you are already crossing my threshold.
Lord, nothing is ready in my house, nothing is prepared within myself, so that I might welcome you! Yet already Love without limits has entered my front room, and He says to me, “Go take your place at the table; this evening I want to share a meal with you.”
The Friend of the Beloved
She moves without a sound, quickly and graciously, in the midst of life’s tumult. At times she breaks the silence, yet she always appears to be wrapped in silence. She lives in this world, yet she appears to dwell in a world of grace.
Her face is softly lit by an invisible Light, yet it enlightens all those who gaze upon her. With her strong yet tender hand she touches everything we touch. She sees what we see. She hears what we hear. Yet thereby she is never diminished, never lessened.
She binds up wounds. She serves at table. Her gestures are proper and precise. She stands among those who are seated. She stands also among those who lie down. Throughout the night her heart keeps watch over those who sleep.
She watches and she awakens. She awakens Love in those who are without love. She conveys Love to those upon whom she gazes, whom she touches with her gentle hand.
She drinks ceaselessly from the Source. She offers herself freely, with passionate attentiveness.
She is Love itself.
~Adapted from the Very Rev. John Breck, Orthodox Church in America (oca.org), September 2009, Article #12, Love Without Limits, by Archimandrite Lev Gillet, “A Monk of the Eastern Church”
