I struggled to choose lines to pull from this Rilke poem. The voice of God, calling us into life, sending us into the world with all that entails. I spent the weekend at the Hearts on Fire retreat that the Apostleship of Prayer and Jesuits have for young adults. It was really lovely. Appropriately the lines “Flare up like a flame / and make big shadows I can move in” popped into my head when we talked about Emmaus and the line “Were not our hearts burning within us?” Our hearts perhaps burn so brightly in the presence of God to create a place for those big shadows. From The Book of Hours, I 59, Rainer Maria Rilke
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.