SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

Thank God the night has finally ended!
The night has ended during which my soul
passed through many barren hours...
The celestial shower awakened me
—a shower of divine grace—
with a freshness that touched my heart.
During the night when it is sleeping
and my heart beats more slowly,
my soul is more distant,
then the shower of celestial grace
will bathe it mercifully with love,
falling from heaven all around it
and refreshing its eternal longing
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
The darkness of night is over,
the spiritual and mysterious night
when the idle hours passed by
unproductively only to dissolve
in the eternal abyss.
Then the pale face of the moon,
a weak reflection of the father of light,
with its sad gaze infused me with
a pleasant sadness...
Its melancholy and milky light
bathed my surroundings
in the pale light of inevitable death;
beneath it, it seemed that my fields,
the fields of my spirit,
sadly anticipated nothingness
and were fearful of it...
My despondent spirit imagined
fanciful regions,
the valleys and mountains,
the forests and deserts,
the rivers and silent lakes,
the shores of my sea...!
All was sunken in a peaceful slumber,
in a deathly peace,
in a profound lethargy from which
a vain dream emerged...!
In your light, oh solitary moon,
everything revealed its hollowness;
the inherent emptiness of my life
inundated me with lethargy...!
When my separated soul
touched itself, it felt its emptiness;
the coldness penetrated me,
the coldness of your light...!
And as I saw your sad face
a feeling of longing rose up
from the depths of my spirit,
a vague and shapeless, obscure desire
whose passage was lost in the fog
that crowned the heights of my soul,
a longing for the Sun...!
But little by little the moon’s face
was covered by a deathly pallor
as the crystalline ocean
of the celestial vault
was gradually filled with the subtle essence
of a white dawn...!
And like a solitary iceberg floating
through the serene vault of the sky
the face of the moon turned white
like a gelatinous cloud;
the moon with no light of its own
precedes the Sun which illuminates it,
white and lost in the immense reaches
of the sky of my spirit which was bathed
in the early morning light of hope,
of a prophetic dawn.
Goodbye, dearest moon,
devoted companion of my nighttime,
with your poor borrowed
and reflected light; you
drew sweetness from my sadness;
you guided my uncertain steps
in the midst of twilight;
you alleviated the absence
of the Sun for whom my soul longs;
you were my consolation,
guiding light of my eternal journey,
the center of my desires,
precursor of the Sun!
And as the light of dawn appears
before the arrival of the sun
the stars obediently melt away;
like this my ideas have also melted away
with the dawn of my soul
before the Sun covers it with light.
A soft virginal whiteness envelops me;
the flowers of my heart begin to open,
lifting their perfumed chalice
to receive the morning kiss
blowing from the east;
this kiss of the wind
revives the perfumed flowers
that had bloomed among
weeds, thistles and thickets
in the closed garden of my heart;
from the fertile seeds of virtue...,
the lilies of immaculate white;
from the desires filled with purity,
the violets of resignation,
the delicate roses of wild brambles;
from the gentle words of consolation
with which I encouraged my brother,
the aromatic spikenard blossomed,
from the works of love!
Back in the formative years of my soul
in the distant forest where the echoes
of my childhood are slumbering,
where the tranquil memories of my
fresh and lovely youth are waiting
to break out in songs of joy
as they are bathed by the Sun,
there my sky is tinted and is clothed
in a purplish cloak,
in the divine crucible of pure gold
of early innocence...!
Vivid memories of my happy childhood,
blessed recollections,
little birds of the soul
nesting quietly there in the
thicket of my heart,
very soon the Sun will shine on you,
and as you drink from His sovereign rays
surrounded by the foliage
of the tree of my life,
you will break out in a canticle of glory,
a heartfelt hymn of triumph,
of eternal love for the blessed Love Eternal!
Everything waits eagerly
for the solemn mystery
of night changing into bright day;
day is dawning!
Shine on me, Father of Light,
wrap me in the luminous mantle
woven with the intangible rays
that create the effect of your inspiration...;
day is dawning!
Everything waits for you eagerly;
my flowers and my birds await you,
the former with perfume sleeping
in their hidden corollas,
and the latter with warbling
still asleep in the lyre of their breasts;
my wakeful heart anxiously awaits you;
the sky which covers you is waiting;
the spiritual air that I breathe,
my entire soul waits for
your pregnant dawn...
Day is dawning!
Let me drink from your rays, Sun of life;
the altar is prepared!
Come to your altar, Divine Sun;
all is kneeling to worship you;
Day is dawning!
Reveal your glory now, Sun of my life;
love of all the loves,
inhale the perfume from my flowers,
listen to the song of my birds,
a song of victory
that fills my heart with the splendor
of your divine glory!
The winged memories of my childhood
will sing you a spontaneous song,
intoxicated with the fragrance
of the flowers sprouting from love.
Sear my thickets with your rays,
Sun of eternal love!
My entire being adores you;
kindle me with your living fire,
fill my body, heart and mind
with the light of Love!