Lately I’ve been reading from a 5th century author named Macarius. However, Macarius was only his pen name; his true identity is unknown so he is referred to as Pseudo-Macarius. He lived somewhere in modern day Syria. In his diary John Wesley wrote: “I read Macarius and sang.” His Fifty Spiritual Homilies are warm, positive and without the intellectual analysis found in many Church Fathers. He talks about the light of God in our souls, the felt love of the Spirit, the transforming power of the incarnation, purification and spiritual sweetness.
Following is a selection from Homily 8 of The Fifty Spiritual Homilies. It was not originally written as a poem and has no title. I just arranged it into stanzas myself. Between translation and arrangement it doesn’t have ideal poetic structure, but I still think it is beautiful. It is about the delight that the Spirit sometimes brings in prayer. Even though I can’t experience this right now it encourages me. It reminds me of what God does and what His heart is for us. It reminds me that 1600 years ago people were understanding and experiencing God in Christ very similar to the way people do now.
It is helpful to read this slowly and absorb it like we should with a good poem.
On Delight that the Spirit Sometimes Brings in Prayer
“A man goes in to bend the knee,
and his heart is filled with the divine influence,
and his soul rejoices with the Lord,
like bride with bridegroom,
according to that word of the prophet Isaiah
which says,
As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride,
so shall the Lord rejoice over thee;
and it comes to pass
that being all day engaged
he gives himself to prayer
for an hour,
and the inward man is rapt in prayer
into the unfathomable deep
of that other world
in great sweetness,
so that his whole mind
is up aloft,
rapt away thither,
and estranged from things below.
For the time being
forgetfulness comes into him
with regard to the interests
of the earthly mind,
because his thoughts
are filled
and taken captive
to divine and heavenly things,
to things infinite
and past comprehension,
to wonderful things
which no human lips can express,
so that for that hour
he prays and says,
“Would God that my soul
might pass along with my prayer!”
We can turn this into a prayer by changing each line into a request to God for ourselves, or by thanking Him that we will experience even more than this in the next life.
Macarius’ Fifty Spiritual Homilies are available in kindle format for 99 cents here. They are also available in a more contemporary translation in paperback here.
