O Lord, two lessons have You taught us, Your servants: that You are, and what You are not. We crave a third: to know what You are. How true it is that in adding to our learning, You add to the load we bear. Precisely because that You are and what You are not can neither be disguised nor prove deceptive, our longing to know what You are is all the greater.Would that we knew not what you are not, and could beguile ourselves with some enticing fancy instead of You, or rather would that we knew what You are and could cling to You in truth and content.
Show Your very Self to us, Lord. You know that our whole longing this day is for Yourself, our love for You is for Your own sake. Have we not forsaken worldliness completely, and this present world almost as fully, that nothing might hinder our seeking You?
~ Isaac of Stella ~
