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I came across this adaption of a prayer from Dante's Inferno and found myself reading it, meditating on it, and praying it. The accompanying video of the prayer by Loreena Mckennitt was very soulful as well.
Dante's work, "The Divine Comedy" is considered to be one of the greatest works of world literature. Dante Alighieri wrote it between 1308 and his death in 1321, it's epic scope looks into a medieval view of the afterlife.
So often, we forget that we are all eternal beings…but when we remember that we were created to live eternally, we are then able to more honestly navigate this life knowing that we are not alone, abandoned or without hope.There are three movements to the Divine Comedy:
This adapted prayer comes from "The Inferno" one of three movements in the Diiine Comedy. We all face inferno's in this life, and it's good to know that God is still at work even when life gets hot!
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Adapted From Dante's Inferno
When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say
there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone
I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in
the light of the stars
Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and fire
Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Though we share this humble path, alone
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars
Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares
Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Please remember me
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This prayer is a bit of lyric, prayer and thought all rolled into one. What strikes me most is how it deals with what St. John of the Cross calls our Dark Night of the Soul."
In every persons life there comes a Dark Night of the Soul when life has delivered a circumstance that knocks us off our illusion of control. When we experience this, it comes in many forms. It can be a terrifying diagnosis, a son or daughter who has gone rouge, the loss of a loved one or the loss of a job. It could be an addiction or struggle that at one time seemed conquerable, but suddenly has wrapped a death grip around our lives.
Whatever the situation, the Dark Night of the Soul is a time when we come face to face with our inability to control anything in our lives…when we realize that we are not God…when we admit that we have exhausted all our possibilities and used up all the tricks up our sleeves and our left seemingly alone, stuck, without hope and often devastated.
This is a time when we also realize that there is much that God needs to reorder in our soul and in our life and He alone can do the reordering…in short, the dark Night is when we finally, desperately, and honestly cry out to God, not out of our strength, but out of our desperate need of Him.
Ego, pride, the American way…these all keep us from getting to this point in our lives, but in truth, we are never fully realizing our human potential until we experience our human lack.
"When the dark seems endless…please remember me."
The spiritual life truly begins when we arrive here…not when we think we have the answers, or feel on top of the world, but when we can honestly pray…
"God, I am in the dark…I don't understand why or what is going on around me right now…my strength is gone and has been shown to be weak…my wings have seemingly been clipped…my power has shown itself as fragility…please remember me…"
Generally we pray, "God strengthen me, empower me, grant me favor, or some other self inflating prayer…the prayer that comes out of the Dark Night knows that simply to be remembered by God is sufficient.
As you pray this week…know that God has remembered you, and that He will become the source of your strength, power, and life. When we allow God to be our source we finally begin to live and experience His goodness even in the midst of the dark
Dei Gratia
Monty
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