Meditation by St. Symeon the New Theologian

We awaken in Christ’s body

as Christ awakens our bodies,

and my poor hand is Christ.  He enters

my foot, and is infinitely me.

I move my hand, and wonderfully

My hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him

(for God is indivisibly

Whole, seamless in His Godhood).

I move my foot, and at once

He appears in a flash of lightning.

Do my words seem blasphemous? __ Then

Open your heart to him,

We wake up inside Christ’s body

Where all our body, allover,

Every most hidden part of it,

 Is realized in joy as Him,

And He makes us utterly real,

And everything that is hurt, everything

That seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,

Maimed, ugly, irreparably

Damaged, is in Him transformed

And recognized as whole, as lovely,

And radiant in His light.

We awaken as the Beloved

In every last part of our body.

(From Mystical Hope, Trusting in the Mercy of God, by Cynthia Bourgeault, p. xi-xii)