To God...

I write this communion while I am wholly seized by it...

O Lord, how often have I spoken with You in the night of the inmost soul..!!
And how often have I communed with You, sorrowful and glad..!!
And after my prayers I would hear Your voice on high, its echo resounding in the corners of my earthly spirit..!!
I knew You by instinct when I was a child..!!
And I would compose myself whenever they spoke Your great name..!!
Because I always believe that I am in Your presence..!!
And I would tremble — with love, reverence, and servitude — whenever I thought that You see me always..!!
I spoke with You when I was at school, reading "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate," and I believed in You for Your mercy and Your tenderness..!!
For mercy and tenderness are the first things the young soul lacks in this harsh life..!!
I knew You on the rainy nights..!!
I would stand — stand for hours listening to the thunder, and this is the pealing of Your whispers..!!
And I would watch the lightning... for it is the light of Your smiles..!!
Your forgiveness, O Lord!!
If I have pictured You so, with my weak human imagination..!!
I knew You in spring... when Your all-powerful hands passed over the face of the earth... and Your marvelous workmanship shone forth in the plants and the roses; and I knew You in the joyous carols of nature... and I knew Your mercy in those fragrant breaths of spring, and I grew certain of Your mercy and believed in You..!!
I knew You in summer... and I believed in Your omnipotence and believed in Your fire; and in autumn... and I believed in death and extinction and sickness, and I learned that You are the Abiding One and we are the perishing..!!
I knew You in the day, when Your lights filled my eyes and Your signs dazzled me..!!
And I knew You in the night, when the glittering stars confided to me the secret of Your greatness, and the pitch-black darkness stirred in my soul the wellspring of awe of You..!!
I knew You in every manifestation of Your worlds, and I communed with You in every sign of Your revelation.
But after this long acquaintance and this unbroken communion, I hear in the depths of my soul a questioner asking:
Have I truly known You, O Lord?