RUSSIAN CHURCHES
Part I
Jubilantly you prance
Across the Russian skies
Sculpted fanciful fantasies
You leap for joy
Dancing in the Presence
Your colorful cupolas
Stretch longingly heavenward
Like Spirit-filled tongues of flame
Filled with the fiery Presence
Which scarcely can you contain
You paint the myriad colors of divine Love
With your many-hued facades
With your many jeweled crowns
You bedeck the hallowed, hollowed spaces
With blue and gold balls
You create a majestic microcosm
For the Uncreated Creator of all
In you primordial Love finds expression
In you the mysteries of the cosmos are incarnate
In you the Holy Mysteries are manifested
You express the Inexpressible
You contain the Uncontainable
You define the Indefinable
You limit the Limitless
You Dance in the Presence
Part II
Exult, you awesome holy temples
You, who contain the Uncontainable
To step through your portals
Is to pass over into another realm
And to stand in the divine Presence
While yet a mortal
Laugh, you ubiquitous holy icons
You, who make visible the Invisible
Through you the divine Beauty is encountered
The first-fruits of the Kingdom apprehended
Sing, you glorious iconostasis
You, who veil and reveal the Holy of Holies
Through you the Unapproachable approaches
Piercing the barrier, reconciling the irreconcilable
Dance, you majestic cosmic domes
You, who bend down the heavens to touch the earth
Through you the cosmic Reality embraces us
Drawing us to Itself in our heavenly ascent
Rejoice, you limitless space, now defined
Within you we enact divine dramas
That reunite separated, segmented existence
Within you we stand in two worlds at once
Surrounded by a vision of transcendent bliss
Dancing in the Presence
By Sister Ioanna
St. Innocent Monastic Community,
Redford, MI
From: DANCING in the PRESENCE, published by Firebird Videos, Audios & Books