the gift

There you’ll reveal to me
all that my soul has longed for on the way –
you, Love, my life will be! –
there give without delay
the gift you gave to me that other day.

That which the soul says He will reveal to her is essential glory, consisting in the vision of God’s being.

… it is impossible to attain to the perfect love of God without the perfect vision of God.

… as the ultimate reason for everything is love, whose property is to give and not to receive, whereas the property of the intellect lies in receiving and not giving, the soul in the inebriation of love does not put first the glory she will receive from God, but rather puts first the surrender of herself to Him…

With love the soul gives herself to Him; with the intellect, on the contrary, she receives from Him.

• St John of the Cross. The Spiritual Canticle. (Stanza 38)