joi, 3 februarie 2011

Ieromonk Ghelasie Gheorghe: "Primordial Memories" (translation from Romanian by Alice Butnar)


















1

The FATHER, the SON, the HOLY SPIRIT
Are GOD TRINITY,
One BEING and one NATURE,
The Absolute in Itself.

The SON says: “In our IMAGE
Let us also give Being
To a Created Image.
I shall endow it with the Image of the Son,
Thou, FATHER, as CREATOR,
Endow it with Being,
And Thou, HOLY SPIRIT, likewise
Endow it with Life.”

And thus TRINITY in Itself
Becomes in Creation
One more TRINITY.

2

“In the Beginning there was the WORD-the LITURGY.”
Before the beginning there was LOVE
With Its Mystery, the TRINITY,
That is BIRTH-the WORD,
That is the LITURGY.

Kneel BEFORE
The DIVINE ICON,
That is the LITURGY of LOVE,
THE IMAGE of our LORD CHRIST.

Take off the shoes of all worldly worries,
Bow your Forehead beyond “the floor of flesh”,
Step into the Bethlehem-Church,
Where the Lamb from ABOVE
Becomes also Earthly Liturgy,
For the World to be thus Born.

GOD’S LITURGY HEART is BEATING,
It is Beating both in Heaven and on Earth,
The SELFSAME HEART CHRIST,
ABOVE and Below.

Who can hinder LOVE,
Who can border it?

Behold the DIVINE LOGOS,
Who is both the DIVINE LITURGY in Itself
And the Liturgy of Creation.

The Mystery of Creation is full of awe,
For Thou, Christ, dost Liturgise it Thyself;
Thou dost EMBODY Thyself
And makest the whole World
Thine Own BODY,
So that through Thy Body we may also ASCEND
To GOD.

I myself, and each of us is
An IMAGE of Liturgy,
A Certain LOVE-WORD,
IMAGE in Eternity.

And Each of us is
Image of Creation and IMAGE of GOD;
Who MEET
Only in Thy Liturgical IMAGE.

Only in this IMAGE do I Find myself,
In my MEETING Thee,
In Thy Liturgy IMAGE,
MYSTERY of LOVE beyond words.

The LITURGY of LOVE
Never stops,
Hence it is the “HEART OF ETERNITY”,
The HEART in never-ending Beating
That never stops.

JESUS, Thy HEART is Beating
In GOD, in Heaven and on Earth,
In all the Hearts of the World,
CHALICE filled with BLOOD,
GOD’S BLOOD and the Blood of Creation,
That always in LITURGY
Become the EUCHARIST.

LORD JESUS, I myself Come
To the ALTAR of Thy LITURGY,
Where I offer myself up as a “Prosphora”
For Thee to LITURGISE it.

Do not be offended by my scanty Love.
Thou hast Created me out of THY LOVE
And the IMAGE of LOVE is SEALED
For Ever onto my Being,
Please make this SEAL into an ALTAR,
Where Thou shalt always LITURGISE
And Shalt Embody into my Being.

I have fallen out of Love
For my many sins,
And lie in the abyss of death,
But, LORD,
Receive me as a Prosphora
Of which please make a LITURGY,
And “Pour” into Thy CHALICE
Also a “drop” of my Blood,
For Thy LOVE and mine
To MEET again.

Thou GOD dost always
Bear us from Thy LOVE,
And Creation also keeps Bearing You,
And this MEETING LOVE becomes the EUCHARIST,
BREAD of Heaven and of Earth,
The WORD that was made FLESH.

DIVINE BREAD-CHRIST,
GOD and Creation in UNION,
Behold, this is the ICON that is no idol,
In which both the World and GOD Himself
REVERE at the same time.

Thou, LORD JESUS CHRIST,
SON of GOD and Son of Creation,
From the LITURGY OF LOVE
Thou Bearest the Church-the MOTHER of the WORLD,
Creation holding GOD into her Arms.

O, GOD’S LOVE full of awe,
How wondrously Thou dost become an Image of Creation,
For the World to also receive
The DIVINE Measure!

O, GOD, Thou hast taken BODY
For the World to ASCEND to GOD,
TWO LOVES that have Found each other
“Beyond the abyss of the Absolute”.

Therefore, the LITURGY OF LOVE,
The HEART of Immortality,
Must never stop.

If only once the LITURGY did stop,
Everything would at once “perish”.

LOVE is Ceaseless CELEBRATING of the LITURGY,
The Endless BIRTH of Oneself,
LOVE is the “Absolute RITUAL”
That becomes the EUCHARIST-GIFT.

What is more wonderful?
The EMBODIED DIVINE
Or Creation OVERCOMING Itself
In the DIVINE, Beyond all Created Image?
The DIVINE made Body is CHRIST,
The HOLY SPIRIT is over the Body,
And They are undivided,
They are at the same time and they are ONE.
Through CHRIST, the DIVINE becomes
The BODY of the EUCHARIST,
Through the HOLY SPIRIT, the BODY becomes
An IMAGE of GODLINESS,
CHRIST and the HOLY SPIRIT –
The CHURCH CELEBRATING its LITURGY.

A CERTAIN WORD of Thine
Has Created a Certain Soul of mine,
And the Two Images stand Face to Face,
As this is my Life,
To See myself in Thee,
Image and Likeness,
Without confusion.

I am first
A WORD of Thine,
Written into Thee, the BOOK of LIFE,
That Thou then dost UTTER
And present me as a GIFT.

The DIVINE WORD,
HEART of GOD,
BEATS in my Being,

When I hear this WORD,
My heart
Answers Likewise.

O, Mystery of UTTERING,
Mystery of BIRTH!

When I am worthy to HEAR the UTTERANCE
Of which I was Born,
Then I too, JESUS, shall become
“ONE BODY” with Thee.

3

LORD JESUS CHRIST,
ICON in Heaven and on Earth,
Thou art the IMAGE,
Through which everything was made.

The Mystery of DIVINITY
Is the Mystery of Thy BIRTH
From the FATHER, Who has no beginning.
And the Mystery of the World
Is also Thy Birth
Into an Image of Creation,
GOD and Creation
Equally.

The IMAGE of GOD the FATHER
Is beyond our Sight,
But Thy IMAGE of SON
Opens for us
A Window of Mystery.

O, IMAGE of the ICON,
Of GOD and of Creation,
Of Heaven and of Earth,
IMAGE and LIKENESS,
You deserve all WORSHIP!

4

DIVINITY Opens
The DOOR toward the World
Through the IMAGE of His SON,
In its turn, the World opens a Door
That allows GOD to be SEEN,
The Image of the VIRGIN MOTHER
Holding the DIVINE INFANT in her Arms,
The MYSTERY of the Icon of Creation.

Both Heaven and Earth
WORSHIP this ICON,
That allows everything
To come TOGETHER.

The VIRGIN-MOTHER
Is the ICON of the World,
The INFANT CHRIST
Is the ICON of GOD,
And their MEETING of MYSTERY
Bestows the World with the CLOTH DIVINE.

*

The ICON from ABOVE is within You,
For You Hold in Your Arms
The DIVINE CHRIST,
The Icon of Below,
Of the Earth, is also within You,
And thus in Your ICON
GOD and Creation are Together.

O, IMAGE of the ICON
Of the MOTHER of GOD,
You OPEN for me
The DOOR toward GOD,
Who EMBODIES into the World,
For me to also Embody into GOD.


Published in the volume "Hesychasm", Platytera Publishing House, Bucharest, 2007, pp. 97-105. Translation from Romanian: Alice Butnar.
Copyright: Platytera Publishing House.

The Romanian (Original) Version can be found here.
The German Version can be found here.

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