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THE MELODY OF SAINT CECILIA

all time the instruments were playing,

Cecilia was singing her heart....

(office of the Church)

O Saint I love you so much, with joy I contemplate

That shining path-of-light which always stays with you:

I think I'm hearing still your melody!....ah, straight

From heav`n your harmonies come down to me anew.

I`m still in exile, so to you my prayers are raised:

Oh let me take my rest on your pure heart. For here

That spotless lily shone-on earth its splendour blazed:

So marvellous a flower had hardly any peer.

9

When suitors called, not one, chaste Dove, did you admit-

For Jesus was the Love that you were wedded to:

He chose your soul, and to Himself united it;

Such virtues did he find such fragrances in you!...

One mortal-youth ashine- he too (to your distress)

Had breathed your perfume in O heav'nly flower of white;

He sought to gather you to gain your tenderness:

Valerian, who brought you his heart, with love alright

And soon, he had prepared a sumptuous wedding-feast

And singers through the halls of all his palace sang:

Yet, in your maiden heart another song increased

Whose echo was divine and up to heaven rang

What could you sing-so far away your home on high!

In seeing, near to you, such mortal frailty?

Undoubtedly you wished, Cecilia, to die-

For Jesus to be one with him, eternally.

But no! I hear your lyre-angelic vibrances!-

The music of your love so sweetly it avows,

You raised up to the Lord that song whose words were this:

'Oh, keep me virgin-pure for you, my tender Spouse'

Surrender (words all fail)-divine the melody!

In that celestial hymm was love made manifest:

Such love as does not fear forgetting all, to be

Upon the heart of God a little child at rest

33

So, to the vault of blue in purity there sailed

(To come and light it up) a white-a timid star...

Illumining the night, whose splendour was unveiled-

Thus, for this virgin-pair, celestial glories are!...

Valerian dreamt, first, of earthly pleasure-for

Your love, Cecilia was all that he desired-

And yet, in wedding you, discovered so much more;

In him a love of Life Eternal you inspired!

'Young friend.' you said to him, 'near me-he never sleeps-

Here always, as guard of my virginity.

An angel of the Lord unending vigil keeps,

In joy, as with his wings of blue he covers me!

At night I see him-oh, his features then appear

More radiant that are the fires of dawn; for he

Is all a gentle flame: such purity is here

The Face of God shines out of his transparency.'

Valerian replied, 'this angel show to me.

And then I might add Faith to this my pledge to you:

But tremble otherwise-for, look at me, and see

The fury, and the here my love may turn into!'

O Dove inside the rock you`re hidden then, you can

Be safe! You needn`t dread the hunter and his snare.

The Face of Jesus gives you light Valerian

Now reads your heart and finds the Holy Gospel there

Your answer came at once; you smiled as you replied:

'Yes, you will see him, soon my guardian! He'll come

To talk to you and tell you all that will betide-

To soar to heav`n you first must face your martyrdom!

Before you see him, though, your Baptism-you need

Your soul to be made white by water; that is when

The true and Only God will live in you indeed!

The Holy spirit....he will animate you then.

The Word-the son of God, the son of Mary too-

With love that is immense is on our altars here

As Sacrifice! The Bread of heav`n is offered you:

To banquet. Thus, on Life, Valerian draw near!

The Seraph in the height will call you 'brother'-for

He sees his God enthroned in you, and will desire

To raise you from the earth the ocean; he will draw

You up to where he dwells this ardency of fire.'

'My heart is now aflame a new felicity

(the nobleman exclaims) has caught it and it soars!

For now, this Lord and God I want to live in me.

Cecilia my love will be no less than yours.'

When, afterwards, the Robe of Innocence he wore

Valerian could see the shining angel. Now

He gazed upon the strength and loveliness he saw

Delighting in rays from that angelic brow.

The seraph, as he shone held roses, and their red.

Had there, along with them, a lily-burst if white.

(These blossoms opened up in Heaven's flower-bed,

Beneath the rays of Love of God's creative Light)

'Dear heav'nly spouses! Crowns of Roses, soon, will ring

Your brows,' the Angel said 'There are no words for this-

No voice, not any lyre whose cadences can sing

Of martyrdom-of how immense a grace it is!

I cannot suffer so -though we, the Seraphim,

Are plunged in the abyss of God' own Beauty, I

Can never give him tears, nor give, as you to Him

My blood, to show my love-for, oh! I cannot die.

Though we have purity as our angelic lot

(Our joy will never end)-though that is wholly true.

Compared with us, a great advantage you have got:

For you can both be pure and suffer for Him too! 96

.....

'Virginity's the state these lilies symbolize

(The Lamb has sent you them)....so fragrant will you be!

An aureile of white your glory signifies-

A song that's wholly new you'll sing, etetnally!

Your union, so chaste yet many souls will bear

Who Him as their true love Him only, have pro fessed:

You'll see them shine in heav'n like flames of loving there,

Before the throne of God the heart-home of the blest.'

Lend me, Cecilia! Your melody. Anew

I'd make a crowd of hearts love Jesus as they should;

Would immolate my life-completely, as did you,

Would offer Him as gifts my weeping and my blood.

Obtain for me the taste of perfect sacrifice-

Surrender-fruit of Love upon this foreigh shore.

Obtain for me, dear Saint, that, soon, my soul may rise

To Heaven, where I'll be near you, for evermore.

notes

pn 3

28 April 1894 (Celine's twenty-fifth birthday)

'...alas, would need another tongue that earth to express the

beauty of the abandon [self-surrender] of soul in the hands of Jesus.....

Celine, the story of Cecilia (the Saint of ABANDON) is your story too!

(Letter from therese,26, April 1894)

therese wrote this poem for her sister,Celine, then looking after their sick

father. with thoughts on the future, she wanted to direct Celine's mind

towards consecrated Virginity, 'fruitful loss' as she called it in poem 17

(but therese said of her parents, whose holiness flowered in matrimony:

'God gave me a mother and father more worthy of heaven than of earth.')

Cecilia is an historical figure, Roman martyr, probably of the late

second/early third century. But the acts of the martyrdom of st Cecilia.

which gives the legend on which therese based her poem, is a

'pious romance' of the fifth century.

ll.9-10 lit' in going though life, you never sought any other spouse but Jesus'

ll.33-36 these four lines represent Cecilia dreaming, asleep like a child

'upon the heart of her God'. The key lines on abandon are 31-32

l.36 lit 'The virginal love of the spouses in Heaven.'

l.96 The dots between this and the next line come from therese

(seem-ingly to indicate transition to a different idea).

nothing has been omitted.