The Journey of the Soul

On a dark night

Kindled in love with yearnings---

Oh, happy chance! --

I went forth unobserved,

My house being now at rest.

--John of the Cross: "Stanzas of the Soul"

 

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The House at Rest

(Jessica Powers -- 1984)

 

How does one hush one's house,

each proud possessive wall, each sighing rafter,

the rooms made restless with remembered laughter

or wounding echoes, the permissive doors,

the stairs that vacillate from up to down,

windows that bring in color and event

from countryside or town,

oppressive ceilings and complaining floors?

 

The house must first of all accept the night.

Let it erase the walls and their display,

impoverish the rooms till they are filled

with humble silences; let clocks be stilled

and all the selfish urgencies of day.

 

Midnight is not the time to greet a guest.

Caution the doors against both foes and friends,

and try to make the windows understand

their unimportance when the daylight ends.

Persuade the stairs to patience, and deny

the passages their aimless to and fro.

Virtue it is that puts a house at rest.

How well repaid that tenant is, how blest

who, when the call is heard,

is free to take his kindled heart and go.

 

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At the end of her life (1905-1988), Jessica Powers referred to herself as a "gypsy," describing her vast wondering over inner and outer landscapes of life for 83 years.  She drew on Carmelite spirituality (Elijah, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Therese of Liseux, primarily) for direction and then wove its guiding lessons into her life's journey at every turn.  Both inner and outer landscapes are involved in her journey, as they are with all of us.  "She used nature as a metaphor to explore human interactions, human/divine relationships, and inner/outer landscapes" (Catholic Herald Citizen, April 18, 1942).  "She wanted her words, her poetry, to draw others to God" (Leonard Feeney, in America: May, 1940, p. 192).

 

Jessica Powers is a mystic in modern-day America who wove her search for truth into a biblical perspective in the Catholic/ Carmelite tradition.  I believe the process she followed in her search for God is one that we can all follow:  she used the wisdom of spiritual giants in the Carmelite tradition as her guides for reflection on her own journey.  "The House at Rest" quoted above is her reflection on the writings of John of the Cross, for example.  How fortunate we are when our souls can resonate to the experience of Scripture or of the great mystics, for Truth cannot be found in the meanderings of the intellect, but only in the journey of the soul.