Canticles - part II - A - 2

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First Poem (1:5-2:7)

1:5. O daughters of Jerusalem.

I am black, but I am beautiful,

as the tents of Cedar

and the pavilions of Solomon.

1:6 Pay no attention that I am brown…

The sun has given me the tint which I have…

The sons of my mother have fought against me…

They have employed me to look after the vines.

The vineyard which I have looked after was not mine.[1]

Let us listen, by grace, to this holy Sulamite as she exclaims almost in this way: Although by reason of a thousand considerations which my heart gives me I be more beautiful than the rich tenets of my Solomon, I mean more beautiful than the Sky, which is only an inanimate pavilion of his royal Majesty since I am his beloved pavilion, so I am nevertheless entirely black, torn to pieces, dusty, and entirely disfigured by so many wounds and blows which this very love gives me.

Ah, pay no attention to my tint, for I am truly brown, seeing that my beloved who is my Sun, has beamed the rays of his love on me, rays which illuminate by their light but which, by their ardour, have rendered me burnt and blackish and, affecting me by their splendour, have deprived me of my colour.

Loving passion makes me very blessed by giving me such a Bridegroom, who is my King. But this very passion, which holds the place of a mother to me since she alone has given me in marriage and not my merits, has other children who give me incomparable assaults and trials, reducing me to such languish that although on the one hand, I resemble a Queen who is near her King, on the other hand I am like a vinedresser in a pitiful hut who looks after a vineyard, a vineyard, moreover, which is not his.[2]

Here is this admirable Lover who would like only to love the tastes, delights, virtues and spiritual consolations for fear of being diverted, however little this may be, from the unique love which she bears toward her Beloved, protesting that it is he, himself, and not her benefits, which she searches for and in this intention crying out:

Ah, show me, my Beloved

where you graze and repose at noon[3]

so that I may not stray

and may not follow the flocks of your companions.

She fears not being everything to her sacred Shepherd and of being ever so little diverted by those who wish to becomes his rivals…[4]

Here among the twilights of the dawn of day, we fear that in place of the Bridegroom we will only meet some other object which may talk to us and deceive us. But when we find him on high, where he feeds and reposes in the noontime of his Glory, there will no longer be any way for being mistaken, for his light will be very clear, and his fragrance will bind us so closely to his Goodness that we will no longer able to wish to be detached from it.[5]

1:8 (7) If you still do not have an entire understanding,

O most beautiful of women,

because you are beginning, you proceed from the recollection of past pleasures.

follow the path of your flocks:

look for my footpaths in all creatures. Allow yourself to be guided and led there, where they return (by) themselves, and you will find that they will go to rest in the pasture of their first Shepherd.

Graze your kids

near the lodges of the pastors (shepherds).

You will be led to Three Who Pasture and one Pastor, to Three Who Create and one Creator. All sensible creatures will lead you there and the most noble even better. Above all (will) human nature…[6]

1:9 I have made you similar to my heifer

harnessed to the chariots of the pharaoh.

1:10 Your cheeks are beautiful, as if there were adorned

with some beautiful ornaments;

Your neck is beautiful, as if it was adorned

with some beautiful quiver.

1:11 We will make you some rings

of gold embellished with silver.

Since I can do nothing else, at least I will love you, O my Bridegroom, and will myself be your royal chamber, which I will perfume with nard, meaning I will fill myself with love:

1:12 While my King will be in his chamber,

my perfume, which is composed of nard,

will embalm this entire place

with the fragrance of its scent.

And, moreover, I will unite myself to him in such a way that I will carry him as a bouquet within my bosom:

1:13 My Beloved is the bouquet of myrrh

that I will carry within my bosom.

1:14 My Beloved is to me a cluster of balm

culled from the vines of Engaddi.[7]

One plants the vine principally for the fruit; therefore, the fruit is the first (thing) desired and supposed, even though the leaves and flowers precede the production of it.

Thus, the great Saviour was the First in the divine intention and in that eternal plan which divine Providence made for the production of creatures. And in the contemplation of this desirable fruit, the Vine of the Universe was planted, and (it) established the succession of several generations, in the guise of the leaves and flowers which came to precede it, as forerunners and preparatives suitable to the production of that Grape which the sacred Spouse praises so much in the Canticle of Canticles and (as) the liqueur in which God and men rejoice.[8]

Certainly human lovers occasionally content themselves in being near or in the sight of the person whom they love without speaking and without chatting, apart from themselves, either of her or of her perfections. (They are) gratified, it seems, and satisfied in savouring this beloved Presence, not by any consideration which they might make of it, but by a certain calm and repose which their spirit apprehends in it. “My Beloved is to me a bouquet of myrrh; he will reside in my bosom.” “My Beloved is mine and I am his, who grazes among his lilies while the day breathes in and the shades (of night) lengthen.” “Show me, therefore, O Friend of my soul, where you rest, where you lie down at noontime.”

See, Theotimus, how the holy Sulamite contents herself in knowing that her Beloved is with her, there in her heart, there in her park, there wherever, provided that she knows where he is. Likewise, she is (a) Sulamite, entirely calm, completely tranquil and in repose.[9]

1:15 O how beautiful you are, my Beloved!

See how beautiful you are;

your eyes are like those of the dove.

1:16 O my Beloved, you are fine and of good grace…

Behold, our blossoming bed.[10]

Your heart, it is the bed of the Bridegroom, for which it is necessary to strew it with flowers.[11]

1:17 The beams of our houses are of cedars.

and our rafters are of cyprus (trees)

2:1 I am the flower of the fields

and the lily of the valleys.

2:2 As a lily (is) among thorns,

so is my beloved among the daughters.[12]

The Bridegroom once praised his Spouse (by) saying that she was like a lily among thorns. (Now) she by mutual exchange responds:

2:3 My Beloved is like an apple three among the thickets;

that tree all laden with leaves, flowers and fruits.

I will rest in its shade,

and I will receive the fruits

which will fall into my lap

and will eat them, and having chewed them

I will relish them in my throat,

where I will find them sweet and agreeable.[13]

Having found a good so eminent above every other, she rests there without looking for more: “I have sat down in the shade of him whom I desired.” And in this spiritual repose the taste of devotion is made: “and its fruit is sweet to my palate” and so sweet that it engenders holy manias and furores in my soul, as if it were intoxicated by love.

2:4 He has led me to the cellar of his wine.

He has unfurled to me

the banner of his veritable love.[14]

In this way, if you take notice, … it is not the desire of something absent which wounds the heart, for the soul senses that God is present: “He has already led her into his wine cellar, (and) he has put on her heart the banner of his love.” But, although he may already see it as entirely his, he urges it on (and) darts to it, in time, a thousand arrows of his love, showing it by new means how much more he is lovable than he is loved. And the soul, which does not have enough force to love him s (it has) love to force itself, seeing that its efforts (are) so foolish in comparison to the desire which it has to love worthily Him whom no force can love enough – alas, it senses itself strained by an incomparable torment, for as many flights which it makes to soar higher in its desirable love, … so it receives just as many blows of sorrow … But the sorrow which one receives cannot be lovable, seeing that whoever desires well to love, loves to desire as well and will esteem himself the most miserable in the universe if he would not continually desire to love that which is supremely lovable. Desiring to love, he receives sorrow; but loving to desire, he receives sweetness.[15]

Thus, the heavenly Spouse, sensing herself scarcely conscious among the violent efforts which she made to bless and magnify the Beloved king of her heart, cries to her companions: “Ah … by contemplation the divine Bridegroom has led me into his wine cellars, making me savour the incomparable delicacies of the perfections of his excellence, and I am so diluted and piously intoxicated by the complacence which I have taken in this abyss of beauty that my soul languishes, wounded by a lovingly mortal desire which urges me to praise forever such eminent goodness.”[16]

Alas, I beseech you,

come to the help of my poor heart,

which goes now to die!

2:5 Uphold it, by grace

and support it by all (your) flowers,

otherwise it may fall swooned…[17]

Sensing it happening unexpectedly, and not wishing to sleep elsewhere than in the arms of her Bridegroom, (she) says:

2:6 Let his left hand be under my head

and by his right hand

let him embrace me intimately.

Now sometimes this repose passes quickly in the tranquillity enjoyed by the entire soul and all the powers which reside therein as sleeping. (It passes) without making any movement or action whatsoever, except the will alone, which itself does nothing else except receive the comfort and satisfaction which the Presence of the Beloved gives it.

For which the divine Shepherd

2:7 adjures the daughters of Sion

by the roes and stags of the fields

that they not at all rouse his beloved

until she wish it,

meaning that she awaken (by) herself.

No, the soul thus tranquil in her God will not leave this repose for all the greatest goods in the world.[18]

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[1] Oeuvres de St. Francois de Sales. Annecy: Religieuses de la Visitation, 1893-1993), Tome 26, p. 17. The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, trans. Henry Benedict, Canon Mackey, D.D., O.S.B. (publication information unknown), Discourse I, p. 3.

[2] Oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 358. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 15; Oeuvres, Tome 5, p. 421. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 13.

[3] Oeuvres, Tome 5, p. 217. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 10, Chapter 14.

[4] Oeuvres, Tome 5, p. 217. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 10, Chapter 14.

[5] Oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 217. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 4, Chapter 1.

[6] Oeuvres, Tome 26, p. 18. The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, Discourse I, p. 5.

[7] Oeuvres, Tome 26, p. 19. The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, Discourse I, p. 6.

[8] Oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 103. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter 5.

[9] Oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 331. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 8.

[10] Oeuvres, Tome 26, p. 19. The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, Discourse I, p. 6.

[11] Oeuvres, Tome 15, p. 17.

[12] Oeuvres, Tome 9, p. 144.

[13] Oeuvres, Tome 9, p. 55. Letters, 11.

[14] Oeuvres, Tome 26, p. 20. The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, Discourse I, p. 7-8.

[15] Oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 350. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 13; Oeuvres, Tome 5, p. 415. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 13 to Chapter 15.

[16] Oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 287. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 5, Chapter 9.

[17] Oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 287. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 5, Chapter 9.

[18] Oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 331. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 8.

St. Francis de Sales and the Canticle of Canticles

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES AND THE CANTICLE OF CANTICLES

TABLE OF CONTENTS :: Preface :: Introduction :: Part I :: Part II :: Part III

A Spirituality for Everyone

St. Francis de Sales presents a spirituality that can be practised by everyone in all walks of life