The Dream of Gerontius (part 1 of 7)
The Dream of Gerontius
(Excerpt from a newly published combined work available here)
Chapter 1
Jesu, Maria, — I am near to death,
And Thou art calling me; I know it now.
Not by the token of this faltering breath,
This chill at heart, this dampness on my brow,—
(Jesu, have mercy! Mary, pray for me!) 'Tis this new feeling, never felt before,
(Be with me, Lord, in my extremity!) That I am going, that I am no more.
'Tis this strange innermost abandonment, (Lover of souls! great God! I look to Thee,)
This emptying out of each constituent
And natural force, by which I come to be.
Pray for me, O my friends; a visitant
Is knocking his dire summons at my door, The like of whom, to scare me and to daunt,
Has never, never come to me before;
'Tis death, — O loving friends, your prayers! — 'tis
he! ...
As though my very being had given way,
As though I was no more a substance now, And could fall back on nought to be my stay, (Help, loving Lord! Thou my sole Refuge, Thou,)
And turn no whither, but must needs decay
And drop from out the universal frame Into that shapeless, scopeless, blank abyss,
That utter nothingness, of which I came: This is it that has come to pass in me;
GERONTIUS
Oh, horror! this it is, my dearest, this;
So pray for me, my friends, who have not strength
to pray.
ASSISTANTS
Kyrie eleïson, Christe eleïson, Kyrie eleïson.
Holy Mary, pray for him.
All holy Angels, pray for him.
Choirs of the righteous, pray for him.
Holy Abraham, pray for him.
St. John Baptist, St. Joseph, pray for him. St. Peter, St. Paul, St Andrew, St. John,
All Apostles, all Evangelists, pray for him. All holy Disciples of the Lord, pray for him. All holy Innocents, pray for him.
All holy Martyrs, all holy Confessors,
All holy Hermits, all holy Virgins,
GERONTIUS
Rouse thee, my fainting soul, and play the man; And through such waning span
Of life and thought as still has to be trod, Prepare to meet thy God.
And while the storm of that bewilderment Is for a season spent,
And, ere afresh the ruin on me fall, Use well the interval.
ASSISTANTS
Be merciful, be gracious; spare him, Lord. Be merciful, be gracious; Lord, deliver him. From the sins that are past;
From Thy frown and Thine ire;
From the perils of dying; From any complying With sin, or denying
His God, or relying
On self, at the last;
From the nethermost fire; From all that is evil; From power of the devil; Thy servant deliver,
For once and for ever.
By Thy birth, and by Thy Cross, Rescue him from endless loss; By Thy death and burial,
Save him from a final fall;
By Thy rising from the tomb, By Thy mounting up above, By the Spirit's gracious love, Save him in the day of doom.
GERONTIUS
Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus, De profundis oro te,
Miserere, Judex meus, Parce mihi, Domine.
Firmly I believe and truly
God is three, and God is One;
And I next acknowledge duly
Manhood taken by the Son. And I trust and hope most fully
In that Manhood crucified; And each thought and deed unruly
Do to death, as He has died. Simply to His grace and wholly
Light and life and strength belong, And I love, supremely, solely,
Him the holy, Him the strong.
Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus, De profundis oro te,
Miserere, Judex meus, Parce mihi, Domine.
And I hold in veneration,
For the love of Him alone, Holy Church, as His creation,
And her teachings, as His own. And I take with joy whatever
Now besets me, pain or fear, And with a strong will I sever
All the ties which bind me here. Adoration aye be given,
With and through the angelic host, To the God of earth and heaven,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,
De profundis oro te, Miserere, Judex meus,
Mortis in discrimine.
I can no more; for now it comes again,
That sense of ruin, which is worse than pain, That masterful negation and collapse
Of all that makes me man; as though I bent Over the dizzy brink
Of some sheer infinite descent;
Or worse, as though
Down, down for ever I was falling through
The solid framework of created things,
And needs must sink and sink
Into the vast abyss. And, crueller still,
A fierce and restless fright begins to fill
The mansion of my soul. And, worse and worse, Some bodily form of ill
Floats on the wind, with many a loathsome curse Tainting the hallow'd air, and laughs, and flaps Its hideous wings,
And makes me wild with horror and dismay.
O Jesu, help! pray for me, Mary, pray!
Some Angel, Jesu! such as came to Thee
In Thine own agony ...
Mary, pray for me. Joseph, pray for me. Mary, pray for me.
ASSISTANTS
Rescue him, O Lord, in this his evil hour,
As of old so many by Thy gracious power: — (Amen.)
Enoch and Elias from the common doom; (Amen.) Noe from the waters in a saving home; (Amen.) Abraham from th' abounding guilt of Heathenesse; (Amen.)
Job from all his multiform and fell distress; (Amen.)
Isaac, when his father's knife was raised to slay; (Amen.)
Lot from burning Sodom on its judgment-day; (Amen.)
Moses from the land of bondage and despair; (Amen.)
Daniel from the hungry lions in their lair; (Amen.)
And the Children Three amid the furnace-flame; (Amen.)
Chaste Susanna from the slander and the shame; (Amen.)
David from Golia and the wrath of Saul; (Amen.)
And the two Apostles from their prison-thrall; (Amen.)
Thecla from her torments; (Amen:)
—so to show Thy power,
Rescue this Thy servant in his evil hour.
GERONTIUS
Novissima hora est; and I fain would sleep. The pain has weaned me... Into Thy hands, O Lord, into Thy hands...
THE PRIEST
Proficiscere, anima Christiana, de hoc mundo!
Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul!
Go from this world! Go, in the Name of God The Omnipotent Father, who created thee! Go, in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Son of the living God, who bled for thee!
Go, in the Name of the Holy Spirit, who
Hath been pour'd out on thee! Go, in the name Of Angels and Archangels; in the name
Of Thrones and Dominations; in the name
Of Princedoms and of Powers; and in the name Of Cherubim and Seraphim, go forth!
Go, in the name of Patriarchs and Prophets;
And of Apostles and Evangelists,
Of Martyrs and Confessors; in the name
Of holy Monks and Hermits; in the name
Of Holy Virgins; and all Saints of God,
Both men and women, go! Go on thy course;
And may thy place today be found in peace,
And may thy dwelling be the Holy Mount
Of Sion:—through the Same, through Christ, our
Lord.