From a friend:

This morning, early, I was browsing in my favourite book of poetry which is The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. (Nicholson & Lee, eds. 1917). In a poem entitled, ‘My Spirit’ by Thomas Traherne (?1636-1674), my attention was arrested by these lines:

O Joy! O wonder and delight!

O sacred mystery!

My Soul a Spirit infinite!

An image of the Deity!

A pure substantial light!

That Being greatest which doth nothing seem!

Why, ’twas my all, I nothing did esteem

But that alone. A strange mysterious sphere! A deep abyss

That sees and is ….

A strange extended orb of Joy,

Proceeding from within,

Which did on every side, convey

Itself, and being nigh of kin

To God did every way

Dilate itself even in an instant, and

Like an indivisible centre stand,

At once surrounding all eternity.

‘Twas not a sphere,

Yet did appear,

One infinite. ‘Twas somewhat every where,

And though it had a power to see

Far more, yet still it shin’d

And was a mind

Exerted, for it saw Infinity.

‘Twas not a sphere, but ’twas a might

Invisible, and yet gave light.

O wondrous Self! O sphere of light,

O sphere of joy most fair

O act, O power infinite;

O subtile and unbounded air!

O living orb of sight!

Thou which within me art, yet me! Thou eye,

And temple of His whole infinity!

O what a world art Thou! A world within!

These lines, convey far better than my stumbling words ever could, what I sensed or encountered in a recent ‘quiet time’. Truly, how wondrous are His ways. Incidentally, you can find the whole poem and this marvelous spiritual anthology at: http://www.bartleby.com/236/46.html