Come, O true Light

Hagia Sofia, Istanbul, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, via Flickr
 
Come, O true Light!
Come, O eternal life!
Come, O hidden mystery!
Come, O indescribable treasure!
Come, O powerful one,
    who always creates and re-creates and transforms
    by your will alone!

Come, you whom my wretched soul
     has desired and does desire!
Come, you who alone go to the lonely
    for as you see I am lonely!
Come, you who have separated me from everything
    and made me solitary in this world!
Come, you who have become yourself desire in me,
    who have made me desire you,
    the absolutely inaccessible one!

Yea, O Master, just as you remembered me,
    when I was in the world
    and, in the midst of my ignorance,
    you chose me and separated me from this world
    and set me before your glorious face,
so now keep me interiorly,
    by your dwelling within me,
    forever upright, resolute;
that by perpetually seeing you,
    I, the corpse, may live;
that by possessing you,
    I, the beggar, may always be rich,
    richer than kings;
that by eating you and by drinking you,
    by putting you on at each moment,
I go from delight to delight
    in inexpressible blessings.

Symeon the New Theologian 949–1022 Byzantine Orthodox monk
source
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John 1:9-10

The true light, which gives light to everyone,
    was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him,
    yet the world did not know him.
 
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When have you experienced the presence and love of God most powerfully?
Remember some of those times in prayer and praise.
 

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