Fr John of the Cross Fitzgerald, O.Carm.

Yesterday I concelebrated at the Requiem Mass of a great man. John Fitzgerald was a priest, carmelite friar, philosopher and poet. A man with a zest for life and a in built sense of wonder at the many ways that God is present to his people. As a poet he used words to express what is beond words, though always aware that this would always be impoverished by the limits of language.

I'll let John express this in his own words.

The House Beyond.

I was joyful when I was told,
'Let us go to the house of God.'
And then, on the threshold, we were told:
'Take of your words and leave them in the porch,
and come through to hear the resoundinf silence;
shut your eyes, shut them tight,
and come through to see the iridescent darkness;
proffer your empty hands, your withered hearts,#
to be filled with what the eye has not seen and ear has not heard.'

We entered the house, and then we were told:
'Come and share the bread of the pain and the loss,
drink of this bitter cup.
Eat, for there is still a way to go.
Drink, so that you have within you a living spring.'

We were promised in the gloom a way of many dwellings,
and that he was the way, but we did not see him.
And yet, here he was, within us and around us in his own expanse.
'Blessed are they who have not seen and believed.
Blessed are they who have not heard and have listened.'

from Gawn Gwirionedd, 2007. By John Fitzgerald, O.Carm.