Devotional to the Bridegroom - Christ

by ixthis 64 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  ixthis

  There was an old man...

  ...who each day ate three biscuits.

  A brother came to him, and when they sat down to eat the old man set three biscuits before the brother. The old man saw that the brother needed more food and brought him three more biscuits. After they had their fill and got up, the old man condemned the brother and said to him, "It is not right, brother, to serve the flesh." The brother asked pardon and left.

  The next time the old man ate, he placed before himself three biscuits, as was his custom. He ate them, and was still hungry although he restrained himself. Again the next day he withstood his hunger. The old man began to weaken and he knew that God had abandoned him. Prostrating himself before God with tears, he begged that he be not abandoned. Then he saw an angel who said to him,

  "Because you condemned your brother, this has happened to you. Know therefore that the ability to deny the flesh or to do any good work is not within your power; rather it is the goodness of God which strengthens you."
• 

  ixthis

  I spoke to her of you ...

  I speak to her of you, Silently, she listens to me.

  I told her of my broken heart. I told her of the pain. For the love so longed for. For the loved one never enjoyed.
  For the tenderness not felt and lost.
  For the embrace reminisce.
  So many things, that were never felt, Withdrawn. I told her of an unhappy soul.
  That joy and love is lost; somewhere and I was seeking.

  She never spoke to me, She never answered me.
  She is a beautiful silence.

  Though everything is motionles, and nothing can be heard, Can you hear the silence of the Angels?
  They hymn our mother, the Panagia.

  I left you my sweet angel, in her Great embrace!
  Listen to her heartbeat.
  It is for you, filled with agony, love and tenderness. I left you in her embrace, the embrace of Panagia, your mother.
  Hide there. Hold her close, hold her tightly, hold on to her ...

  She knows what you need.
• 

  myelaine

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaRwD2Y7C0s

  xo
• 

  ixthis

  I share this as prayer, not as literature since this is the way that I pray daily; these words reflect my own experiences and feelings and I often take the words of the Saints, whom accurately speak [in their own words] thoughts I could never articulate the way they do:

  "... For what has love not accomplished, and what is it not?
  Love is delightfulness, and joy, gentleness, and peace,
  immeasurable mercy, an abyss of compassion,
  invisible, yet seen, infinite yet comprehended,
  impalpable, untouchable, yet capable of being grasped in my mind.
  When I have love, I do not look upon it,
  I quickly hasten to grasp it, and it flies clean away.
  
  ...
  
  I cry out in distress, I am bound tight wishing to grasp it,
  and everything is night, and my wretched hands are empty.
  I forget everything and I sit and lament,
  without hope of thus seeing the love light ever again.
  But when I wail much and want to stop,
  then love comes mysteriously, and grabs my head,
  and mingles with tears, I know not who it is,
  and it shines upon my mind with an exceedingly sweet light.
  
  But whenever I know who it is, love quickly flies away,
  leaving for me the fire of its divine desire,
  which does not allow me to laugh or to look at human beings,
  nor to accept the desire for any of the visible things.
  
  By small degrees love lights up, by patience it is kindled,
  and becomes a great flame seizing the heavens;
  relaxation quenches it, the distraction of domestic matters
  and the care of life's anxieties.
  
  Love invites silence ...

  
  ...
  
  And so when I attain the flame and become humble,
  then love is with me without separation,
  it converses with me, enlightens me, love seems me and I see it.
  Love is in my heart, it is in heaven,
  it explains the Scriptures to me and adds to my knowledge, (Lk 24.27)
  it teaches me mysteries, of which I am unable to speak, (1 Cor 14.2)
  and love shows to me how it snatched me from the world
  and ordered me to have mercy on all those who are in the world.
  
  Amen.
• 

  myelaine

  Where Sheperds Lately Knelt

  Where sheperds lately knelt and kept the angels word,

  I come in half belief, a pilgrim strangely stirred;

  but there is room and welcome there for me,

  but there is room and welcome there for me.

  In that unlikely place I find Him as they said:

  Sweet newborn babe, how frail, and in a manger bed:

  a still small voice to cry one day for me,

  a still small voice to cry one day for me.

  How should I not have known Isaiah would be there,

  his prophecies ful-filled? With pounding heart, I stare:

  a child, a son, the Prince of Peace for me,

  a Child, a Son, the Prince of Peace for me.

  Can I, will me? I forget how love was born and burned

  its way into my heart, unasked, unforced, unearned,

  to die, to live, and not alone for me,

  to die, to live, and not alone for me.

  ~Jaroslav Vajda & Carl Schalk~