A Solemn Epithalamion*

The two of you have moved into a mystery,

Not in the modern sense of stumbling through a maze

Of thievery and mayhem, murder and deception,

Confusion, ignorance (though some have made it that);

And not into the great and highest mystery,

The world of opening doors into infinity...

Not yet that mystery, but the one next like it!

So prepare for last rites, the sentencing of self.

For you must give your life to gain the unforeseen:

Love’s trans-personal life (almost a trinity).

You carry in yourself the soul of your beloved.

You know your own soul gone, subject to the other.

Your life is drawn away...only from separateness.

Here is good death and life, whether we like or fear:

Finding a self that breaks as fragrant as ripe fruit,

Pregnant with seeds that live to burst and grow yet more.

Brother Martin called it Sanctification’s School;

And, with Mother Church, it calls for deepest union.

By mutual exchange the two are one, yet two;

And all grace is required to bring this union, whole,

Into eternity, into the Father’s home,

By the Son’s agony, and by the Spirit’s prayer.

It is a solemn task, a pilgrimage to joy,

Based on the energy of God’s love loaned to you.

To true initiates the marriage-mystery

Unveils the end of life you were created for.

Dennis Evans,

September 1988

*Epithalamion was the nuptial song sung in ancient Greece, by a chorus of youths and maidens, as they led the procession of the bride and groom to the bridal chamber.