Ninth Meditation

(Ascent of Mount Carmel, book I: chapter 13-15)

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us…So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (17)


Preparing The Vessel

A study of His Word reveals
The life and love of her One Lord.
To learn His ways, she slakes and seals
Her heart with a love of His Word.

She cleans her heart of its old stains --
The lure to live her former ways;
Emptied and readied, she remains:
A vessel for His love and praise.

Her emptied heart, humbled and stilled,
Is sealed with His peace in this night.
From Springs within, she'll soon be filled;
Love of her Lord has set things right.

This active night prepares her heart;
Vessel and Springs aren't far apart.

17. 2 Corinthians 4: 7,16-18


(c) Paul Buis, 2003