I finished the Bequine section in my book and have moved south to Italy and in time to read a selection of equally remarkable texts by equally remarkable women, but Mechthild is so captivating that I am drawn back to refresh my soul!
In the Flowing Light of the Godhead, there appears a dialog between the Soul and the Senses. Her method of leading her reader through her reasoning is powerful, and I will--did in a short story--copy her, not in the form of the dialog, but in the structure she uses to move the argument of her position. Ha! I make her sound cold and analytical! She's not. It's only the writer in me who deconstructs. The reader in me remains roused and hot. Perhaps hotter because I appreciate her skill as well as the art.
Mechthild's passion is stripped, so to speak, and lies exposed at the end. The reader, who's had the pleasure of indulging in the dialog up to her thesis, will recognize that every word shudders with meaning. She doesn't waste a single breath and each one is an intense gasp.
Soul:
Lord, now am I a naked soul
And Thou a God most Glorious!
Our two-fold intercourse is Love Eternal
Which can never die.
Now comes a blessed stillness
Welcome to both. He gives Himself to her
And she to Him.
What shall now befall her, the soul knows:
Therefore am I comforted.
Where two lovers come secretly together
They must often part, without parting.
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