Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Search the Poetry Chaikhana site:

| View All Poems by Dame Catherine Gascoigne |
One thing alone I crave / Unum sit mihi totum by Dame Catherine Gascoigne (1600 - 1676) Timeline English version by Stanbrook Abbey Original Language Latin Christian : Catholic 17th Century One thing alone I crave namely All in everything This One I seek the only One do I desire Rooted in One is all from the One flows all This is the very One I seek will have only then be filled Unless I drink this Spring I thirst for nowhere else sup I to be fulfilled What or Who this One is I may not say can never feel Nothing more or less is there to say For the One is not simply in all the One Being is over all YOU are my GOD holding me within my very SELF * Reprinted by permission, Copyright Stanbrook Abbey 1999	Themes   Spring Blossom   Water   Wine
| View More Poems by Dame Catherine Gascoigne |

Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

I particularly like the lines:

What or Who this One is
I may not say
can never feel
Nothing
more or less
is there to say

For the One is not simply in all
the One Being is over all

This touches on a dilemma mystics all over the world encounter. Why is it that Dame Catherine asserts that, "Nothing more or less is there to say"? The problem is that there is no language for the all-encompassing Reality ("the One") encountered by mystics.

The reasoning mind understands reality by dissecting it. The intellect slices reality into manageable pieces that it can comprehend and manipulate. We use a limited language to describe a limited, fragmented notion of reality. But the Divine Presence witnessed by mystics in deep communion is the Wholeness of reality.

But the One permeates everything, has no boundaries. "For the One is not simply in all / the One Being is over all." How then can the poor intellect hope to describe that which is "All in everything"?

This doesn't mean the intellect can't try, by resorting to metaphor (and poetry), but the communication of this divine Truth ultimately comes not through words but through participation. You silently take people by the hand and lead them to the fountain, inviting them to drink for themselves.

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2009 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.