The Gift : Lyrics

Tracklisting

1. 01. Sero
2. 02. Ad Sum
3. 03. The Second Giving
4. 04. You Have Made All Things New
5. 05. Magnet of Christ
6. 06. How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place
7. 07. O My Soul Rely On the Living One
8. 08. All Shall Be Well
9. 09. Summer’s End
10. 10. Late Fragment
11. 11. Amazement
12. 12. A Second Giving

01. Sero

Text translation and tune © (p) Kathleen Deignan, CND
Inspired by Confessions of St. Augustine Book 10:27 (Summer 2005 – Fall 2006)

Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova. Sero te amavi!
Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new!
I was searching all around me; You were all within.

I grasped at your beauty everywhere
and longed to have and hold what can but be beheld.
Sero te amavi!!

You attracted, I distracted did not see
the Giver of all gifts was gracing me.
Sero te amavi!!

You called, you shouted – piercing through my deafness;
You flashed, you shone – dispelling all my blindness.
Sero te amavi!!

You breathed your fragrance on me,
I drew my breath and now am breathless for Thee.
I tasted your sweetness and now I am famished for You –
You touched me; now I am burning for your peace.

Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new!
I was searching all around me; You were all within.
Sero te amavi!! Vero te amavi…

02. Ad Sum

Ad Sum / text translation and tune © (p) Kathleen Deignan, CND. Based on Psalm 40 (8.23.79)

Ad sum!
Here I am, O Lord coming to do your will.

Happy are they who put their trust
In the God of life and truth.
Let us forsake rebellious ways
And from idols become free.

You do not ask for sacrifice
But desire an open ear.
For holocaust, a heart of fire:
O Lord, here I am!

In the scroll of the book it is written
That I should do your will.
O God, your law is my delight
In the depths of my heart.

Your justice I proclaim aloud
In the great assembly.
My lips cannot be silent, Lord.
Your name I will sing!

03. The Second Giving

Tune © (p) Kathleen Deignan, CND
Text © Carmelite Monastery, Pewaukee, WI.
“The Second Giving,” The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers, published by ICS Publications, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. Used with permission. A samba for Marie Schmidt, CND (11.17.05)

The second giving of God is the great giving
out of the portions of the seraphim,
abundances with which the soul is laden
once it has given up all things for Him.

The second growth of God is the rich growing,
with fruits no constant gathering can remove,
the flourishing of those who by God’s mercy
have cut themselves down to the roots for love.

God seeks a heart with bold and boundless hungers
that sees itself and earth as paltry stuff;
God loves a soul that cast down all He gave it
and stands and cries that it was not enough.

04. You Have Made All Things New

Rune © (p) Kathleen Deignan, CND (8.19.94)
Text “The Odes of Solomon,” translated by Stephen Mitchell in ‘The Enlightened Heart’ (Harper & Row, New York 1989). Used with permission.

You have made all things new;
You have shown me all things shining.

My heart was split and a flower appeared
and grace sprang up bearing fruit for my God.

You poured your spirit into my heart
and then I knew you as I know myself.

My drunkenness on the waters of life
has become insight, intimacy with your spirit.

I have become like paradise,
A garden, whose fruit is joy.
You are the sun upon me.

05. Magnet of Christ

Text and tune Kathleen Deignan, CND
The Song of Jeanne le Ber, for Lorraine Caza, CND (3.15.04)

By the magnet of Christ I am drawn to stillness
My joy is to live as a recluse of Love
Resting my head on the heart of all Mercy
Living in the presence of the Presence

This is my home where I will live forever:
Hidden with Christ in God

This breath and this heartbeat, the rhythm of my praising,
sounding to the wing-beats of angel-song.
My will is an anchor in the depths of silence -
Living in the presence of the Presence

Each morning I rise in the Holy of Holies
to sacrifice each moment of time.
Burning like a lamp with the oil of gladness -
Living in the presence of the Presence

Fasting from all things to feast on your manna,
bread in the wilderness gathered each dawn.
Tasting your sweetness in quiet communion -
Living in the presence of the Presence

With my prayer I am sowing / sewing the seeds of heaven,
a garden of paradise to bloom on earth.
Spinning and weaving, revealing the beauty
of Living in the presence of the Presence

In the silence of the senses I know only Being -
the vast fields of heaven in the smallest thing.
Unknowable mystery that cannot be spoken
living in the presence of the Presence

06. How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place

Text translation and tune Kathleen Deignan, CND
Based on Psalm 84; with lines adapted from Stephen Mitchell’s A Book of Psalms* (New York: Harper Perennial). Used with permission. (3. 15.04)

How lovely is Your dwelling place O God!
With yearning soul I long to live to live with You.
My heart and flesh rejoice to live in Your presence now.

The sparrow finds a home at last,
the swallow builds her nest near Your altar;
and now we who are pilgrims of the many pathways
come seeking our home in You.

A single day within Your courts
is worth a thousand days any elsewhere -
just to stand on the threshold of Your sanctuary
is better than a life of wealth.

Happy those who live with You,
who praise You night and day in Your dwelling;
Renouncing all desire, divesting of all cares
Just to dwell in the temple of Your love.

Where there is no self
Where there is not other
Where there is nothing left but You.*

So take me home and be my home:
Let me make my home in You.

07. O My Soul, Rely On the Living One

Text translation and tune Kathleen Deignan, CND
Based on Psalm 131 (8.21.79)

O my soul rely on the Living One now and forever.

For now my heart is empty
no lofty thoughts for me.
I have no care for great affairs
or marvels beyond my reach.

Enough for me to deep my soul
in the peace of simplicity;
tranquil as a child at rest
embraced on its mother’s knee.

In quietude, O keep my heart
as content as a child at rest,
to be at peace in Your embrace
like a little one upon Your breast.

08. All Shall Be Well

Text and tune Kathleen Deignan, CND
Inspired by Julian of Norwich for my sister Ann, the healer, Feast of Clare (8.11.88)

All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.

Receive the gift of healing from the well of tears;
be washed anew by grief and sorrowing.

Receive the gift of healing from our mother Earth,
her deep and dark and secret verdancy.
Receive the gift of healing from the shaman’s touch:
the wounded healer’s power to revive.

Receive the gift of healing in the arms of love,
embraced in passion and compassioning.

09. Summer’s End

Tune Kathleen Deignan, CND
Text “Summer’s End” by Ann Deignan in Mythos Gate (Schola Ministries, 2002). Used with permission. (2002-2006)

I want to wake one evening
at summer’s end
and walk through the peaceful sleep
of ripened berries
of old oak
of weeping willow.

Not seeing at all
I want only
to feel their rest,
like a child
with her eyes closed
feels the shape of surprise.

For the soul sleeps
out of doors
through the archway
and past the iron gates
in the old orchard
bearing its fruit
heavy in the mist
of a cool heaven.

10. Late Fragment

Tune Kathleen Deignan, CND. Text “Late Fragment” by Raymond Carver from A New Path to the Waterfall (Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1989). Used with permission. For Pateros (2002)

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

11. Amazement

Text and tune Kathleen Deignan, CND

When night falls with its darkness on my senses,
when night falls and the gates to the palace of death break open,
when night falls, I want to reach for the stars, full of luminosity,
wondering on what threshold of morning my soul will awaken.

When day breaks with its glory on my spirit,
when day breaks and the angel of light spreads her wings about me.
When day breaks I want to rise in the arms of the One who summons me,
waking in a dream of communion in the great house of Being.

With my last breath I want to sing my life’s praise,
the hymn of a soul given to amazement.

With my last breath I want to sing my heart’s song,
grateful and grace-full:
my spirit exulting in The Gift of my life.

With my last breath I want to sing
my life’s praise – the hymn of a soul
given to amazement!!!

12. A Second Giving

Medley of melodies by Kathleen Deignan, CND. Arranged and performed by Rob Silvan and John Ragusa.