Mechtild of Magdeburg
I cannot dance, O Lord,
Unless You lead me.
If You wish me to leap joyfully,
Let me see You dance and sing

Then I will leap into Love
And from Love into Knowledge,
And from Knowledge into the Harvest,
That sweetest Fruit beyond human sense.

There I will stay with You, whirling.







The madness of love
by Hadewijch of Antwerp
(trans. by Oliver Davies)

The madness of love
Is a blessed fate;
and if we understood this
We would seek no other:
It brings into unity
What was divided,
And this is the truth:
Bitterness it makes sweet,
It makes the stranger a neighbor,
And what was lowly it raises on high.

From Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries
of Spiritual Poetry by Women by Jane Hirshfield, editor.
Copyright (c) 1994 by Jane Hirshfield. Reprinted by permission
of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.