I Sam 3.1-10 "Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’"
In the poetry of St John of the Cross, God's voice calling in the night elicits from the listening contemplative the language of love, the sensuality of a lover's blossoming desire. For the contemplative discovers that the One he loves, in the darkness of night, has secretly made the creature his beloved. His senses become sharpened by a single-minded focus, his heart is fuelled by passion, and he himself becomes transformed in the embrace of the Beloved. "Oh night that guided! oh night dearer than the dawn! Oh night that joined the Lover with beloved, beloved in the Lover transformed!" In the image above, the flame is no ordinary source of warmth: to be found near it is to have shadows dispelled in its light and to be drawn into the heat of a consuming fire. In the passage narrative of the biblical Samuel, to hear God's voice, to be named by the voice of Love, is to fall into an unexpected innocence: for without yet knowing the full extent of his calling, we simply say, 'Here I am, you called me' (1 Sam 3.5).
Come Holy Spirit, renew your calling and breathe new life within us.
- We thank you that your inextinguishable light gives us hope in dark times
- We listen through surrounding noises and silences for the sound of our name
- We wait in barren and unexpected places for your renewing work
- We seek courage and knowledge to help one another hear God’s word
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