The Book of the Holy Graal :: :: University of Virginia Library

The lonely ways
Of long dream-life slipp'd from them silently.
The spacious presages of things to come
Spread vistas widely, peopled far and near
With cohorts of prevision, angel-hosts
Thronging a court of heaven. When something loosed
All bounds and bonds, they stood as those on whom
The kingship of the spiritual city
Confers its freedom. In such hour the soul
Enlarged its auras, and that moon which look'd
From her far height upon them, with its beams,
Form'd pallid background where each shone to each
In radiant light of beauty. They beheld
Enough of coming things to know that God
And the Divine Ambassadors keep well

The future ways, shaping them all in love
To perfect ends. Moreover, in the glass—
Clear and bright-shining—of each other's eyes
They look'd and saw some part of that which lay
Behind in their unfathom'd past of things.
Not here and now their primal meeting-point,
Nor in the sleep of far anterior worlds,
Or waking life in elder days of earth,
But in the spirit they had dwelt with God—
Beyond distinctions of the twain and Him—
Together, He alone possessing all
And all in Him: unsearchable unity,
Infinite multiplicity.

So came
The gospel of their eyes and spoke itself
Within their hearts, preach'd from the soul of both,
Received and realized in heart and soul.
The dream had grown to vision: if in sleep,
It was a sleep in God. The eyes of her
Were gates for an expanding universe,
And the whole world was she, desired in God,
In God received—a blessed sacrament,
Image and type of Him. On her own part
BEATA'S wells of being leap'd, and she
Saw God alone in eyes through which she look'd,
God in the cosmic vistas far prolong'd
Beyond their gate, an unescapable,

All-keeping love. And she herself became
No longer loving or of things beloved
But love itself, with God of God therein.

Thus were they open'd and replenish'd thus
Within them. Each to one another given
Forecast not then concerning future lots
And waking life together. They inwove
At root, in essence, knowing that the bond
Was not in holy house or place of dream
Welded, but that which had for ever been,
Though only now discovered. Being fill'd
Themselves, they also saw the end of want
Among the famish'd peoples of their sleep.
So therefore in the Blessed and Holy House
Of Many Mansions, inly moved thereto,
And in a silence both of lips and heart,
They seal'd refreshment and its grace attain'd,
Communicating each to each the Bread
And Wine, so long in separation borne,
But now in union shared. A secret wealth
Hidden in that communion raised for them
Some further gates, sluice-gates of very light,
As if through channels of the outward signs
The life and substance of God's hidden deeps
Flow'd in them and flow'd over and immersed—
A saturation of the Soul with God.

One moment only they were drown'd therein,
And all the canticles of saints and Kings,
Whom God has visited in fullness, join'd
In clamorous melody. It was good to dwell
In the Lord's House, the beauty of that House
O'er all desired; to stand within the gates
Of this true Zion; to sing with golden tongue
The mystery of eternal life in Him,
As blood and body received in body and blood.
They look'd towards that great day when all who strive
In their poor hearts for God and Things Divine
Shall feel their hearts a cellarage of God
Press'd down, fill'd over, pouring through the streets
Of spiritual cities; the worldly rich
Left empty, till they also starve, and God
Shall also them replenish.

I have said
One moment—very transport, yet too still
For words of mine. The spirits had dissolved
Together, into God's great dark withdrawn.
But they had far to travel in the soul
And what befell them on one side of life
To reach upon the other. Therefore this
Viaticum of rapture came and went
Flashwise, and never in their life of dream
Did they come bearing Bread and Wine again

To feed each other. At the end of all,
When those who now stand in the Outer Court
Shall cross the Holy Place and after—raised
Towards the Holy of Holies—find the last
Most highest veil, perchance upon their call
Awaiting, they may minister once more
To one another, or the veil itself
Be parted by a ministry behind.
Then God shall draw them through, while other voice
Than theirs recites the consummatum est.

Quantum magnale Dei gaudium:
Come, taste and prove the sweetness of the Lord,
Glory of joy in Him, the King Whose joy
Is to be known in hearts, Who else abides
Unknown, received not in the part of life.
Mayst thou, O Word of all, in all take flesh:
Those which conceive Thee in embodied womb
Of soul and bring Thee forth into their lives
Shall make one flesh together, one heart and soul.
Here are true marriages, my spouse, my love—
BEATA MEA. Consummations here
Are perfect for all life, death and beyond—
O QUÆSTOR DEI, spiritual friend,
Most High Companion of the Holy Quest.
So in one night of sacrament those twain

Grew one into another: they were known
And knew. Wide openings of the cryptic way
Were made within them and the vistas shone—
World upon world. At that still rapture's end
They stood together, but now side by side,
Bearing the Chalice and Ciborium
For other needs than theirs. The light within
Was light without, fair-flowing through the House.
The Sacred Presence manifest within
Show'd forth another Presence like thereto—
Nay, but the same and self-declared without,
Through all the hallow'd images and veils,
Though not set wholly free from certain clouds,
As might be incense-fumes from thuribles
Or sanctuary chant down nave and aisles
Panting and pouring, muffling for the most
That still, small voice which in the shrouded Pyx
Recites the blessed privities of God.
So much—towards vision in elected hearts—
Of many mansions in the House of God
And chambers of the Presence.

For what from me could hide Thee
In worlds without I sought
Who needed none beside Thee;
But there I met with naught.

With golden tongues for leading
All Nature's glories preach,
And beauty spreads for reading
Her gospels, clear as speech.

Where earths and skies and seas are,
The witness never fails:
Thy revelations these are
And not Thy clouding veils.

I only then conceal Thee:
Strip off this self, and I
Shall unto That reveal Thee
Which not in self can die:

A Thou within my being
Which past all mine and me,
My ways of thought and seeing,
Is I at one with Thee.