Third Meditation

(Ascent of Mount Carmel, book I: chapter 5)

"He told them a parable also: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon an old garment; if he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old." (5)


A Change of Garments

Dressed in the world's finer clothes,
Her heart is set on many things;
Yet deep within her soul she knows
The nakedness privation brings.

Her precious idol outerwear,
Worn o'er attachment's lingerie,
Must both be renounced and stripped bare --
Ev'ry last thread taken away.

Her naked heart must be washed clean:
Bathed in the scorch of heaven's light.
A new garment, of the Unseen,
Will clothe her in the cloak of night.

With fibers of wisdom and grace,
Her cloak's finer than silk and lace.

5. Luke 5:36


(c) Paul Buis, 2003