A Powerful Longing

further verse adaptations of Saint Isaak's homilies

A Powerful Longing

(from Homily 1, following the saint’s observations regarding “the fear of God”)

Should you succeed in laying this foundation

of virtue, nothing will surpass

this fear as you tread the path

enroute to possessing your true self, freed

from the affairs of the grim

and dissolute marketplace.

Nothing proves more efficacious to your recovery

than your pursuing and persevering in

the luminous word—that straight

and holy path, and very word

which, God-inspired, the Psalmist

raised for us as a lamp.

When such grace grows abundant in one’s heart,

then readily will he scorn the fear of death,

apprehending in its place a powerful longing.