LXII. Columba aspexit (Sequentia de sancto Maximino)
The Dove at the Window
The contemplative gaze begins as the dove peers through the lattice, and balsam flows before the face of radiant Maximinus.
The dove looked through the lattice of the window, where balsam sweated forth before his face, streaming from radiant Maximinus.✦
The Temple Rising in the Heart
Solar fire penetrates darkness and a gem arises in the temple's building, the lofty tower adorned with precious stones, as the swift stag runs to water the sweet spices from the hardest rock.
The heat of the sun blazed up and shone into the darkness, and from there a gem arose in the building of the temple — of a most pure and willing heart.✦ This lofty tower, built of the wood of Lebanon and cypress, adorned with hyacinth and sardius, is a city surpassing the crafts of all other artisans.✦ He himself, the swift stag, ran to the spring of most purely flowing water, from the hardest stone, and watered the sweet spices there.✦
The Spice-Merchants' Ascent
The spice-merchants ascend from the king's gardens after the holy sacrifice, and among them shines the temple wall who longed for eagle's wings through wisdom in the church's fruitfulness.
O spice-merchants, you who dwell in the sweetest greenness of the king's gardens, ascending on high, when you accomplished the holy sacrifice in the rams.✦ Among you shines this craftsman, the wall of the temple, who longed for the wings of an eagle by kissing wisdom, the nurse, in the glorious fruitfulness of the church.✦
Maximinus, Mountain and Altar
Maximinus is hailed as both mountain and valley, a lofty building where wisdom delights, strong and sweet in the ceremonies, ascending like spice-smoke to the pillar of praise.
O Maximinus, you are mountain and valley both, and in each you appear as a lofty building, where the goat went out with the elephant, and wisdom was in delights. You are strong and sweet in the ceremonies, and in the shining of the altar you ascend like the smoke of spices to the pillar of praise.✦
Intercession Before the Mirror of Light
Maximinus intercedes for the people who reach toward the mirror of light, whose praise is in the heights.
Where you intercede for the people who reach toward the mirror of light, whose praise is in the heights.
Read the original Latin
Columba aspexit per cancellos fenestre, ubi ante faciem eius sudando sudavit balsamum de lucido Maximino. Calor solis exarsit et in tenebras resplenduit, unde gemma surrexit in edificatione templi purissimi cordis benivoli. Iste turris excelsa de ligno Libani et cipresso facta iacincto et sardio ornata est, urbs precellens artes aliorum artificum. Ipse velox cervus cucurrit ad fontem purissime aque fluentis de fortissimo lapide, qui dulcia aromata irrigavit. O pigmentarii, qui estis in suavissima viriditate hortorum regis ascendentes in altum, quando sanctum sacrificium in arietibus perfecistis. Inter vos fulget hic artifex, paries templi, qui desideravit alas aquile osculando nutricem sapientiam in gloriosa fecunditate ecclesie. O Maximine, mons et vallis es et in utroque alta edificatio appares, ubi capricornus cum elephante exivit, et sapientia in deliciis fuit. Tu es fortis et suavis in cerimoniis et in choruscatione altaris ascendens ut fumus aromatum ad columpnam laudis.
Ubi intercedis pro populo, qui tendit ad speculum lucis. Cui laus est in altis.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Song.2.9 — My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
- ↩Mal.3.1 — And See, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight will come, says the LORD of Armies.
- ↩Song.7.4 — Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
- ↩Ps.42.1 — To the choirmaskil. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
- ↩Song.1.12;1Kgs.10.2 — While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth its fragrance. 1Kgs.10.2 — And she came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones; and she came to Solomon and spoke to him all that was in her heart.
- ↩Exod.19.4;Ps.103.5 — You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Ps.103.5 — who satisfies your life with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
- ↩Rev.8.4 — And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the hand of the angel.
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