Easter 7 Ecstasy

Draw me after You!
We will run in the fragrance of Your perfumes,
      O heavenly Spouse!
I will run and not tire,
      until You bring me into the wine-cellar,
      until Your left hand is under my head
      and Your right hand will embrace me happily
      and You will kiss me with the happiest kiss of Your mouth. - See more at: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2011/07/29/clare-of-assisi-draw-me-after-you/#sthash.3xQsv098.dpuf

Draw me after You!
We will run in the fragrance of Your perfumes,
      O heavenly Spouse!
I will run and not tire,
      until You bring me into the wine-cellar,
      until Your left hand is under my head
      and Your right hand will embrace me happily
      and You will kiss me with the happiest kiss of Your mouth. - See more at: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2011/07/29/clare-of-assisi-draw-me-after-you/#sthash.3xQsv098.dpuf

Draw me after You!
We will run in the fragrance of Your perfumes,
      O heavenly Spouse!
I will run and not tire,
      until You bring me into the wine-cellar,
      until Your left hand is under my head
      and Your right hand will embrace me happily
      and You will kiss me with the happiest kiss of Your mouth. - See more at: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2011/07/29/clare-of-assisi-draw-me-after-you/#sthash.3xQsv098.dpuf

Draw me after You!
We will run in the fragrance of Your perfumes,
      O heavenly Spouse!
I will run and not tire,
      until You bring me into the wine-cellar,
      until Your left hand is under my head
      and Your right hand will embrace me happily
      and You will kiss me with the happiest kiss of Your mouth. - See more at: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2011/07/29/clare-of-assisi-draw-me-after-you/#sthash.3xQsv098.dpuf

Ecstasy. There's a word that is difficult to use in churchy settings, but I do believe it is a part of our tradition, a part of our interactions with God. It's not acknowledged in all Christian traditions and, indeed, my own Lutheran tradition tends to be more suspicious than embracing of it. 

Still, I've had my moments. They're hard to explain and I won't try. Luckily, we have some people in the Christian tradition who were more articulate about it. I'll leave three examples below for your edification and contemplation. 

But if Easter joy can't be ecstatic, I don't know what can.

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Draw me after You!
We will run in the fragrance of Your perfumes,
     O heavenly Spouse!
I will run and not tire,
     until You bring me into the wine-cellar,
     until Your left hand is under my head
     and Your right hand will embrace me happily
     and You will kiss me with the happiest kiss of Your mouth.
[Clare of Assisi]

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I came to love you too late, Oh Beauty,
so ancient and so new. Yes,
I came to love you too late. What did I know?
You were inside me, and I was
out of my body and mind looking
for you.
I drove like an ugly madman against
the beautiful things and beings
you made.
You were inside me, but I was not inside you....
You called to me, you cried to me; you broke the bowl
of my deafness; you uncovered my beams and threw them
at me; you rejected my blindness; you blew a fragrant wind
on me, and
I sucked in my breath and wanted you; I tasted you
and now I want you as I want food and water; you
touched me, and I have been burning even since to
have your peace.[Saint Augustine]

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When he touches me, I clutch the sky’s sheets, the way other lovers do the earth’s weave of clay. Any real ecstasy is a sign you are moving in the right direction; don’t let any prude tell you otherwise. [Teresa of Avila]