A U2 song from ‘Achtung Baby’ produced by Brian Eno

Six o’clock in the morning
You’re the last to hear the warning
You’ve been trying to throw your arms
Around the world
You’ve been falling off the sidewalk
Your lips move but you can’t talk
Tryin’ to throw your arms around the world

I’m gonna run to you, run to you, run to you (Mary)
Be still (me)
I’m gonna run to you, run to you, run to you
Woman (Mary) I will

Sunrise like a nosebleed
Your head hurts and you can’t breathe
You been tryin’ to throw you arms around the world
How far you gonna go
Before you lose your way back home
You’ve been trying to throw your arms
Around the world

I’m gonna run to you, run to you, run to you
Woman (Mary) be still (me)
I’m gonna run to you, run to you, run to you
Woman (Mary) I will

Yeah, I dreamed that I saw Dali
With a supermarket trolley
He was trying to throw his arms around a girl
He took an open top beetle
Through the eye of a needle
He was tryin’ to throw his arms around the world

I’m gonna run to you, run to you, run to you
Woman (Mary) be still (me)
I’m gonna run to you, run to you, run to you
Oh, Woman (Mary) I will

(And you just gotta, you just gotta make your faith…see…)

Nothin’ much to say I guess
Just the same as all the rest
When you’re tryin’ to throw your arms around the world

I’m gonna run to you, run to you, run to you
I’m gonna run to you, run to you, run to you
I’m gonna run to you, run to you, run to you
Woman (Mary) be still (me)
Woman (Mary) be still (me)
Be still (me)
Woman (Mary) be still (me)
Woman (Mary) I will

I heard this song, reminding me of younger days, and recent weekends exploring downtown, the futility of attempting to live out the passion God is subtly able to provide. The quietness of prayer able to build to a crescendo, supplying lasting peace, in ways exhaustive and excitable ways of the most remarkable degree can not match. Prayer supplies, nurtures, prepares, and edifies. Worldly ways of experience drain, their lasting profound message demanding detachment. Regarding song lyrics, in parentheses is an approach I administer to secular songs.  The ‘she’ being sung to is Mary in my mind. Songs of love I address to my Holy Mother. In my darkest worldly and self-indulgent moments she was always with me. In the midst of decadence, blinded by strobe lights and loud music, I clung to her. I had to know the world in my prodigal way, yet never could I be without my Holy Mother. Decades of celibacy, my woman was and is Mary. I can not even think about life without her. Suffering from an unquenchable thirst to love, unable to procure worldly satisfaction–the deepest tangible, experienced, love I know is from our Blessed Mother. I am hers without question.  Weak, vulnerable, always at her mercy, she silences my fears.

“In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart. And that you may obtain the assistance of her prayer, neglect not to walk in her footsteps. With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception; while she holds your hand, you cannot fall; under her protection you have nothing to fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal.”  —-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Mary Assumption