An Indian Study of Love and Death/A Litany of Love
A Litany of Love: Invocation
A Litany of Love
O Love, lifted high above all qualities and persons!
Love, delivering from bondage,
Love, casting out all fear,
Love, in which the body has no part,
Love, eternal—transcendent—universal,
Love of the Sacred Heart, ever self-consumed in its own light,
To Thee our salutation.
Thee we salute. Thee we salute.
Thee we salute.
Soft wings of the divine Motherhood,
Folding into their own depth and shadow all things that cannot bear the light,
All little children crying out that they are lost,
All error and defeat, all sin and sorrow,
All loneliness and weakness, and all unprotectedness and simplicity of love;
Thou the All-pitiful, folding us closer to one another beneath Thee,
To Thee our salutation.
Thee we salute. Thee we salute.
Thee we salute.
Thou Naked Sword of Purity!
Thou, that cleavest all bondage,
Thou, Destroyer of Ignorance,
Thou, Refuser of attachments,
Thou, that remainest ever Thyself,
Supreme Love, that manifestest Thyself in Thy power, and passion is burnt to ashes.
Wondrous Equanimity, Foundation-stone of holiness,
To Thee our salutation.
Thee we salute. Thee we salute.
Thee we salute.
Thou Tempest of the freedom of the soul!
Wind of the spiritual mountains,
Insatiable longing for self-sacrifice,
Realisation of our self as all,
Love for the sake of love,
Work for the work’s own sake,
Renunciation without an object,
To Thee our salutation.
Thee we salute. Thee we salute.
Thee we salute.
Love all transcendent,
Tenderness unspeakable,
Purity most awful,
Freedom absolute,
Light that lightest every man,
Sweetest of the sweet, and
Most Terrible of the terrible,
To Thee our salutation.
Thee we salute. Thee we salute.
Thee we salute.
O Infinite Love, reveal to us Thy face!
O Infinite Love, awake and abide in us!
O Infinite Love, burn us till we be consumed!
We desire not to possess Thee.
We desire not to behold Thee.
We desire to become one with Thee.