Dulce Maria Loynaz

Apr062017

Christ’s words to a friend being formed into a lover

Follow your own road without fearing you’ll lose me.  You will find me when you return, even if you’re a thousand years late.

Since your weak and you let life push you around, go wherever it pulls you.  Why struggle if you’ll only struggle in vain.

I will be strong for you.  I will build a mountain with your failures and sit atop the peak waiting for you.

Don’t worry.  The night won’t frighten me and the cold won’t drive me away.  There is no winter as cold as my winter, no night as deep as my night.  I myself freeze the wind.  I myself darken the sky.C

Follow your road.  While I wait for you.  I will be immovable.  Like a boulder.  Or better yet.  Like a tree (cross) clutching the earth with a savage fury.

‘Absolute Solitude’ Dulce Maria Loynaz

The Eternal Broken Heart

In Jesus, God saves us by becoming so vulnerable that we are able to kill him in a vile and humiliating way. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus assure us that God’s offer of friendship will never be withdrawn, no matter what we do. If the cross did not result in a withdrawal of the offer, then nothing we do will lead to a change of God’s heart. We can, however, refuse the offer. Friendship is a mutual relationship, and a person has to accept the offer; he or she cannot be coerced or tricked into it. And any human being’s final refusal of God’s friendship breaks God’s heart. Still, God does not turn away from such a person in anger and rage. God lives eternally with a broken heart. That’s how vulnerable God wants to be. —William A. Barry, SJ, Lenten Meditations

The Presence of God

To be present is to arrive as one is and open up to the other. At this instant, as I arrive here, God is present waiting for me. God always arrives before me, desiring to connect with me even more than my most intimate friend. I take a moment and greet my loving God.

Freedom

I am free…create in me a feeling of awe. Yes, a wonderful feeling of freedom. Thank you, God.

Consciousness

To be conscious about something is to be aware of it. Dear Lord, help me remember that you gave me life. Thank you for the gift of life. Teach me to slow down, to be still and enjoy the pleasures created for me. To be aware of the beauty that surrounds me. The marvel of mountains, the calmness of lakes, the fragility of a flower petal. I need to remember that all these things come from you.

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Aug012016

A poem of longing

I need you to lull this sick heart to sleep, and this soul that never knew how to find you, and this wounded flesh that still yearns for you.

You must give me serenity, and you yourself must do it, for nobody else can. I need you to flow over me like water, to quench me, flood me and leave me at rest. Just once! To be at rest in this world!

I have a great desire to sleep, even if it’s under a plot of earth, but only if the earth above me doesn’t resemble what I loved so hopelessly while I was alive, only if I stop finding in the earth this gasping I call a life.

I fear nothing so much as ceaselessly being myself. I’m afraid of knowing myself without having known you.

I feel so weary. As if I wrestled with the sea, as if the waves pummeled my body and hurled it against the rocks, and then I, in a sudden fury, grabbed it and tucked it under my arm.

My bones ache. The very blouse on my back aches. And my solitude aches, too, ever since you let me press my mouth to it and blow it into flame.  –Dulce María Loynez ‘Absolute Solitude’

3jpg Dulce María Loynaz

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Jul142016

‘Absolute Solitude’ Dulce Maria Loynaz

Forgive me Lord for everything I hold back, my Lord, for everything I pin down so it will not reach for You.

Even though I’m yours, I keep everything from You.  Forgive me for everything I destroy, conquer and overcome within me.

Forgive me for locking up my soul with seven keys and not answering when you knock.  Forgive me for subduing my body, for nailing it to a wall to keep it away from you.  Forgive me for dominating my body and soul, for being more powerful than you and more powerful than myself.

Forgive me for being so strong (obstinate).  I never wanted all this strength, but as I am, so shall I be.

Jacob wrestled with an angel for a night, but I have wrestled with him all my life, and still, I have yet to see the face of an angel bleeding at my feet.

Blue Boat

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Jul052016

Wings of Desire

The Joyful Mysteries

The Annunciation

The Silent Way

“I am the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me”.

So often God performs His greatest works in silence. Mary is alone as  the Holy Spirit comes upon her and the power of the Most High covers her with its shadow she conceives the Holy one to be called the Son of God. The whole world was to be affected by this event which God worked in seclusion and silence. So, too, does His grace work in one’s soul. Mary’s was a secret joy until God willed to reveal it to others.

Mother Mary, pray for us that we may always allow God’s grace to work silently in our soul.

The Visitation

The Blessed Way

“Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb”.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth knows what God has done for Mary and for all mankind. What greater blessing than to be chosen by the Father to be the mother of all of us. Through it, all glory and honor are given to the Father. “Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor are Yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever”. No two women ever shared in a joy like that of Elizabeth and Mary.

Mother Mary, pray for us that our souls may be blessed with all the graces that Jesus has merited for our salvation.

Wings Dulce María Loynaz

“You have wings and I don’t. You flit through the air like a butterfly, while I go off to learn, from every last road on earth, what it means to be sad”. 

“Within you there is the weariness of a wing that has been stretched a long time”. 

Two prose pieces from Dulce María Loynez ‘Absolute Solitude’. The introduction to the first two Joyful Mysteries are taken from the Saturday afternoon prayer guide we utilize at St Paul Shrine, put together by extern Poor Clare Sister Regina.

An image of seven-fold grace.

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Jul032016

A poet shares

I never call your name,
But you are in me
Like the song in the nightingale’s throat
Even when it’s not singing.

Dulce Maria Loynez

A poet splendidly introduced by the Cuban poet friend from St Paul Shrine. She attended a conference on the poet in Brooklyn, speaking inspiringly of her experience. Her admiration with her fellow country woman extends to enchantment regarding communist persecution in Havana due to the poet’s commitment to her Catholic faith. A collection of the poet’s, ‘Absolute Solitude’ has been ordered.

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This woman is phenomenal. The book can be purchased on Amazon, including a Kindle edition.

Body and soul, I always had my way.

My soul was rebellious. Like a lion tamer in a circus I had to confront it whip in hand. In the end I made it jump through rings of fire.

My body was more submissive. The truth is, it was weary of my soul’s constant coming and going.

It wanted nothing more to do with it. I didn’t manage to free it, but at peace with my soul and a little bit in debt, perhaps, to my body, I gathered up into the two of them, not unlike a shepherdess, a few fragments of Martha and a few of Mary.

Fragments, nothing more. But enough to tell them, when they come and ask me, I have served God.

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