"Primeiro Motivo da Rosa" by Cecília Meireles (in Portuguese)

Vejo-te em seda e nácar,

E tão de orvalho trêmula, que penso ver, efêmera,

Toda a Beleza em lágrimas

Por ser bela e ser frágil.

Meus olhos te ofereço:

Espelho para face

Que terás, no meu verso,

quando, depois que passes,

jamais ninguém te esqueça.

Então, de seda e nácar,

Toda de orvalho trêmula, serás eterna. E efêmero

O rosto meu, nas lágrimas

Do teu orvalho... E frágil.

"The Song of the Bats" by Robert E. Howard (in English)

The dusk was on the mountain

And the stars were dim and frail

When the bats came flying, flying

From the river and the vale

To wheel against the twilight

And sing their witchy tale.

"We were kings of old!" they chanted,

"Rulers of a world enchanted;

"Every nation of creation

"Owned our lordship over men.

"Diadems of power crowned us,

"Then rose Solomon to confound us,

"In the form of beasts he bound us,

"So our rule was broken then."

Whirling, wheeling into westward,

Fled they in their phantom flight;

Was it but a wing-beat music

Murmured through the star-gemmed night?

Or the singing of a ghost clan

Whispering of forgotten might?

"An Inscription" by Oscar Wilde (in English)

Go little book,

To him who, on a lute with horns of pearl,

Sang of the white feet of the Golden Girl:

And bid him look

Into thy pages: it may hap that he

May find that golden maidens dance through thee.

"The Command of General Mu" by Unknown Writer (in English)

War Action vol.2 #3 - Atlas, June-1952.

"Not All The Singers of a Thousand Years" by Lord Alfred Douglas (in English)

Not all the singers of a thousand years

Can open English prisons. No. Though hell

Opened for Tracian Orpheus, now the spell

Of song and art is powerless as the tears

That love has shed. You that were full of fears,

And mean self-love, shall live to know full well

That you yourselves, not he, were pitiable

When you met mercy's voice with frowns or jeers.

And did you ask who signed the plea with you?

Fools! It was signed already with the sign

Of great dead men, of God-like Socrates,

Shakespeare and Plato and the Florentine

Who conquered form. And all your pretty crew

Once, and once only, might have stood with these.

"Ecclesiastes" (Chapter II) by Qoheleth (in English)

Chapter 2

1 I said to myself, "Come, now, let me try you with pleasure and the enjoyment of good things." But behold, this too was vanity. 2 Of laughter I said: "Mad!" and of mirth: "What good does this do?" 3 I thought of beguiling my senses with wine, though my mind was concerned with wisdom, and of taking up folly, until I should understand what is best for men to do under the heavens during the limited days of their life. 4 I undertook great works; I built myself houses and planted vineyards; 5 I made gardens and parks, and set out in them fruit trees of all sorts. 6 And I constructed for myself reservoirs to water a flourishing woodland. 7 I acquired male and female slaves, and slaves were born in my house. I also had growing herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I amassed for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings and provinces. I got for myself male and female singers and all human luxuries. 9 I became great, and I stored up more than all others before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom, too, stayed with me. 10 Nothing that my eyes desired did I deny them, nor did I deprive myself of any joy, but my heart rejoiced in the fruit of all my toil. This was my share for all my toil. 11 But when I turned to all the works that my hands had wrought, and to the toil at which I had taken such pains, behold! all was vanity and a chase after wind, with nothing gained under the sun.

12 For what will the man do who is to come after the king? What men have already done! I went on to the consideration of wisdom, madness and folly. 13 And I saw that wisdom has the advantage over folly as much as light has the advantage over darkness.

14 The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.

     Yet I knew that one lot befalls both of them.

15 So I said to myself, if the fool's lot is to befall me also, why then should I be wise? Where is the profit for me? And I concluded in my heart that this too is vanity. 16 Neither of the wise man nor of the fool will there be an abiding remembrance, for in days to come both will have been forgotten. How is it that the wise man dies as well as the fool! 17 Therefore I loathed life, since for me the work that is done under the sun is evil; for all is vanity and a chase after wind. 18 And I detested all the fruits of my labor under the sun, because I must leave them to a man who is to come after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruits of my wise labor under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So my feelings turned to despair of all the fruits of my labor under the sun. 21 For here is a man who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and to another, who has not labored over it, he must leave his property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune. 22 For what profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? 23 All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity.

24 There is nothing better for man than to eat and drink and provide himself with good things by his labors. Even this, I realized, is from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat or drink apart from him? 26 For to whatever man he sees fit he gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering possessions to be given to whatever man God sees fit. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.

"Homily for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on the Occasion of the 18th Day of Consecrated Life" by Pope Francis (translated into English)

Vatican Basilica, Sunday, 2 February 2014

The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple is also known as the Feast of the Encounter: the Liturgy says at the beginning that Jesus goes to meet his people. Thus, this is the encounter between Jesus and his people, when Mary and Joseph brought their child to the Temple in Jerusalem; the first encounter between Jesus and his people, represented by Simeon and Anna, took place.

It was also the first encounter within the history of the people, a meeting between the young and the old: the young were Mary and Joseph with their infant son and the old were Simeon and Anna, two people who often went to the Temple.

Let’s observe what the evangelist Luke tells us of them, as he describes them. He says four times that Our Lady and St Joseph wanted to do what was required by the Law of the Lord (cf. Lk 2:22, 23, 24, 27). One almost feels and perceives that Jesus’ parents have the joy of observing the precepts of God, yes, the joy of walking according to the Law of the Lord! They are two newlyweds, they have just had their baby, and they are motivated by the desire to do what is prescribed. This is not an external fact; it is not just to feel right, no! It’s a strong desire, a deep desire, full of joy. That’s what the Psalm says: “In the way of thy testimonies I delight…. For thy law is my delight” (119 [118]:14, 77).

And what does St Luke say of the elderly? He underlines, more than once, that they were guided by the Holy Spirit. He says Simeon was a righteous and devout man, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and that “the Holy Spirit was upon him” (2:25). He says that “it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit” that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (v. 26); and finally that he went to the Temple “inspired by the Spirit “(v. 27). He says Anna was a “prophetess” (v. 36); that is she was inspired by God and that she was always “worshipping with fasting and prayer” in the Temple (v. 37). In short, these two elders are full of life! They are full of life because they are enlivened by the Holy Spirit, obedient to his action, sensitive to his calls....

And now there is the encounter between the Holy Family and the two representatives of the holy people of God. Jesus is at the centre. It is he who moves everything, who draws all of them to the Temple, the house of his Father.

It is a meeting between the young, who are full of joy in observing the Law of the Lord, and the elderly who are full of joy in the action of the Holy Spirit. It is a unique encounter between observance and prophecy, where young people are the observers and the elderly are prophets! In fact, if we think carefully, observance of the Law is animated by the Spirit and the prophecy moves forward along the path traced by the Law. Who, more than Mary, is full of the Holy Spirit? Who more than she is docile to its action?

In the light of this Gospel scene, let us look at consecrated life as an encounter with Christ: it is he who comes to us, led by Mary and Joseph, and we go towards him guided by the Holy Spirit. He is at the centre. He moves everything, he draws us to the Temple, to the Church, where we can meet him, recognize him, welcome him, embrace him.

Jesus comes to us in the Church through the foundational charism of an Institute: it is nice to think of our vocation in this way! Our encounter with Christ took shape in the Church through the charism of one of her witnesses. This always amazes us and makes us give thanks.

And in the consecrated life we live the encounter between the young and the old, between observation and prophecy. Let’s not see these as two opposing realities! Let us rather allow the Holy Spirit to animate both of them, and a sign of this is joy: the joy of observing, of walking within a rule of life; the joy of being led by the Spirit, never unyielding, never closed, always open to the voice of God that speaks, that opens, that leads us and invites us to go towards the horizon.

It’s good for the elderly to communicate their wisdom to the young; and it’s good for the young people to gather this wealth of experience and wisdom, and to carry it forward, not so as to safeguard it in a museum, but to carry it forward addressing the challenges that life brings, to carry it forward for the sake of the respective religious orders and of the whole Church.

May the grace of this mystery, the mystery of the Encounter, enlighten us and comfort us on our journey. Amen.