The Pearl, Hymn 1: A Pearl in the Palm of My Hand

One day, my brothers and sisters, I picked up a pearl. I saw in it mysteries belonging to the kingdom, likenesses and types of the Majesty. It became a fountain, and from it I drank mysteries of the Son. I put it on the palm of my hand, my brothers and sisters, to examine it. I went to look at it from one side, and it turned out to have faces on every side. I found that the Son is beyond comprehension, since he is wholly light. In its brightness I saw the Bright One, who cannot be clouded; in its purity, a great mystery, the body of our Lord, which is well refined; in its undividedness, I saw the Truth, which is undivided. So it was that I saw there its pure conception: the Church, and the Son within her. The cloud was the likeness of her who bore him, and her type was the heaven, since his gracious shining shone out from her. I saw in it his trophies, his victories and his crowns. I saw his helpful and overflowing gifts of grace, and his hidden things together with his revealed things. [a]

It was greater to me than the ark, for I was astonished at it. I saw in it folds that cast no shadow, because it was a daughter of light; types that speak without tongues; utterances of mysteries without lips; a silent harp that gave out melodies without a voice. The trumpet falters and the thunder mutters; so do not be rash. Leave hidden things alone; take the things revealed. You have seen in the clear sky a second shower: the clefts of your ears are filled with interpretations, as if from the clouds. And just as that manna alone filled the people with its delights in place of pleasant foods, so this pearl fills me in place of books, and the reading of them, and the explanations of them. And when I asked whether there were still other mysteries, it had no mouth with which I could hear from it, nor any ears with which it could hear me. O you thing without senses, from which I have gained new senses!

It answered me and said: “I am the daughter of the sea, the boundless sea! And it is from that sea, the sea I came up from, that there is a mighty treasury of mysteries in my bosom! Search out the sea, but do not search out the Lord of the sea! “I have seen the divers who came down after me, astonished, so that they returned from the middle of the sea to the dry ground; for a few moments they could not endure it. Who would linger, searching on into the depths of the Godhead? “The waves of the Son are full of blessings, and of harm too. Have you not seen the waves of the sea? If a ship struggles with them, they will break her to pieces; if she yields herself to them and does not rebel against them, she is saved. “In the sea all the Egyptians were choked, though they did not scrutinize it; and the Hebrews too, without prying, were overcome on the dry land. How then will you be kept alive? And the men of Sodom were licked up by the fire. How then will you prevail? “At these uproars the fish in the sea were shaken, and Leviathan too. Do you have a heart of stone, then, that you read these things and still run into these errors? What great cause for fear, that justice too should be silent so long!” [b]

“Searching is mixed with thanksgiving, and which of the two will prevail? The incense of praise rises from the tongue along with the smoke of disputing, and to which shall we listen? Prayer and prying come from one mouth, and which shall we heed? “For three days Jonah was my neighbor in the sea. The living things in the sea were terrified, and said, ‘Who can flee from God? Jonah fled, and you are stubborn in your scrutiny of him!’” [e]