Ieromonk Ghelasie: "The ICONIC Prayer" (English translation: Alice Butnar)

I

LORD,
I STAND before You
In PROSTRATION!
I cannot SEE You,
For I am blinded by sin.

I try to REGARD You
With my Mind,
Yet I avoid
Thinking of You,
Lest I fall for delusions.

I try to feel You
Yet I fear
My sinful senses.

I STAND TO Your FACE
I Call for You in PRAYER...

I wish I could stretch my Arm,
And TOUCH You.
Bow my head,
And simply know that You ARE PRESENT
Forever.


II

All of a sudden I startle...
It is as if I see my Image
REFLECTED in You
And likewise
Your IMAGE in me...
Without confusion,
Still FACE to FACE,
I stand in PROSTRATION
Unmoved,
In awe for Your PRESENCE.

My Mind and senses
STAND still...

Where ARE You, LORD,
In me,
Or “outside” of me?
Where am I?...
One thing I KNOW though:
That we STAND FACE to FACE,
And in-between US
There IS BOTH OF US.

I Bear You SEALED
Onto my Image,
Where You
Yourself are PAINTED,
Where I myself Reflect,
Like a CROSS of ENCOUNTER
A SILVER ICON
RADIANT Token of GRACE
That KINDLED between Us.


III

I wish I could STAND
Like this FOREVER.
As in an ICON
Un-moved,
With Mind and senses
STANDING still,
Just in PROSTRATION.
CRUCIFIED on the CROSS
Between Us,
As an EMBRACE
Of LOVE.
MYSTERY of the ICON
And of PRAYER,
Over the BORDERLAND
No one can pass,
The ENCOUNTER
In the UNSEEN,
And the SEEING
Into a STILL MYSTERY,
The ALTAR of PARTAKING
THE HOLY SUPPER!

(published in the volume "Hesychasm", Platytera Publishing House, Bucharest, 2007, pp. 45-48. Translation from Romanian: Alice Butnar.

Copyright: Platytera Publishing House.

The Romanian (Original) Version can be found here.
The German Version can be found here.