{"id":5917,"date":"2017-10-18T08:36:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T15:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=5917"},"modified":"2017-10-18T08:36:36","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T15:36:36","slug":"jacopone-da-todi-love-beyond-all-telling-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/jacopone-da-todi-love-beyond-all-telling-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacopone da Todi – Love beyond all telling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love beyond all telling (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul\u2026)
\nby Jacopone da Todi (Jacopone Benedetti)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes<\/font><\/p>\n

Love beyond all telling,
\nGoodness beyond imagining,
\nLight of infinite intensity
\nGlows in my heart.<\/p>\n

I once thought that reason
\nHad led me to You,
\nAnd that through feeling
\nI sensed Your presence,
\nCaught a glimpse of You in similitudes,
\nKnew You in Your perfection.
\nI know now that I was wrong,
\nThat that truth was flawed.<\/p>\n

Light beyond metaphor,
\nWhy did You deign to come into this darkness?
\nYour light does not illumine those who think they see You
\nAnd believe they sound Your depths.
\nNight, I know now, is day,
\nVirtue no more to be found.
\nHe who witnesses Your splendor
\nCan never describe it.<\/p>\n

On achieving their desired end
\nHuman powers cease to function,
\nAnd the soul sees that what it thought was right
\nWas wrong. A new exchange occurs
\nAt that point where all light disappears;
\nA new and unsought state is needed:
\nThe soul has what it did not love,
\nAnd is stripped of all it possessed, no matter how dear.<\/p>\n

In God the spiritual faculties
\nCome to their desired end,
\nLose all sense of self and self-consciousness,
\nAnd are swept into infinity.
\nThe soul, made new again,
\nMarveling to find itself
\nIn that immensity, drowns.
\nHow this comes about it does not know.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality)<\/a>, Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Sacha Fernandez<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Love beyond all telling,
\nGoodness beyond imagining,
\nLight of infinite intensity
\nGlows in my heart.<\/i><\/p>\n

Too often statements like this can sound like a formula of religious piety, but it is more than that. These are the direct experiences of the mystic. The heart grows warm and blossoms, opening until it seems to encompass all of creation. This is not just an idea or some philosophical notion \u2014 it is felt tangibly in the body as well as the soul. Love floods in, and a sense of utter harmony, rightness, the \u201cgoodness\u201d of being. Often one witnesses a dazzling golden-white light like a radiant ocean that flows through everything, showing the multiplicity of creation to secretly be a shining unity.<\/p>\n

It is this that Jacopone da Todi is writing of.<\/p>\n

I once thought that reason
\nHad led me to You,
\nAnd that through feeling
\nI sensed your presence\u2026<\/p>\n

I know now that I was wrong,
\nThat that truth was flawed.<\/i><\/p>\n

These verses are a call to the religious minded to not be content with thinking one has found the truth on assertions of belief alone. (\u201cYour light does not illumine those who think they see You \/ And believe they sound Your depths.\u201d) Or even to imagine that it is felt through elevated or refined emotions. He is proclaiming that the real truth is somehow more direct and surprising than that. All mental conceptualization is limited by the intellect and imagination, yet the reality we seek is beyond the thinking mind\u2019s ability to conceive of\u2026<\/p>\n

Light beyond metaphor\u2026<\/p>\n

He who witnesses Your splendor
\nCan never describe it.<\/i><\/p>\n

Here, words fail. The mind can only become a mute witness.<\/p>\n

The very notion of self melts amidst that immensity\u2026<\/p>\n

In God the spiritual faculties
\nCome to their desired end,
\nLose all sense of self and self-consciousness,
\nAnd are swept into infinity.
\nThe soul, made new again,
\nMarveling to find itself
\nIn that immensity, drowns.
\nHow this comes about it does not know.<\/i><\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Jacopone da Todi (Jacopone Benedetti)<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nJacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality)<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nAll Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n
\n\"Jacopone<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nJacopone da Todi (Jacopone Benedetti)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Italy (1230 \u2013 1306) Timeline<\/a>
\nChristian<\/a> : Catholic<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Little is known with historical certainty about the life of of Jacopone da Todi. He was born Jacopone Benedetti to a wealthy family in the town of Todi, Italy. As a young man he entered a career as a notario, combining the skills of an accountant and a lawyer. And he married. All of these elements suggest an early life of moderate wealth.<\/p>\n

A popular story from an early religious biography suggests that his life drastically changed when, at a wedding feast, a balcony collapsed and mortally wounded his young wife. Devastated, Jacopone abandoned his career and gave away all of his possessions. This event is questioned by some historians, however, as possibly being manufactured for religious drama. But some traumatic event seems to have prompted his radical conversion.<\/p>\n

He become a wandering penitent and a source of public ridicule. Jacopone eventually joined the Franciscan order. Among the Franciscans, he discovered his gift for poetry. Brother Jacopone became a leader of the Spirituals faction of Franciscans who dedicated themselves to the ideal of radical poverty.<\/p>\n

The Franciscan Spirituals got caught up in the ugly politics of papal succession of the time, and Jacopone was imprisoned for five years for his opposition to the election of Pope Boniface VIII. Throughout this time, Jacopone continued to write his ecstatic and mournful poems that touch upon the deepest personal encounters with divine Love. <\/p>\n

With his release on Pope Boniface\u2019s death, Jacopone retired to a hermitage near Orvieto. He died on Christmas Day in 1306.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Jacopone da Todi (Jacopone Benedetti)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love beyond all telling (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul\u2026) by Jacopone da Todi (Jacopone Benedetti) English version by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes Love beyond all telling, Goodness beyond imagining, Light of infinite intensity Glows in my heart. I once thought that reason Had led me to You, And that through feeling I sensed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[53,735,77,60,415],"class_list":["post-5917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-catholic-poetry","tag-jacopone-benedetti","tag-jacopone-da-todi","tag-light","tag-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5918,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5917\/revisions\/5918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}