A Flame of God Himself

This book is an in depth journey through the greatest love poem of the Bible, and indeed of the whole of world history: the Song of Songs. This is a breathtakingly beautiful drama that occurs, not merely between two human hearts, but between every single human heart and the God who is passionately in love with us. In this drama, we will encounter the pain of longing for a Beloved who seems to be absent, and we will encounter the ecstatic joy of discovering that he is never far away. We will rest in the joy of his indestructible love, which cradles us without ceasing even in our darkest place, delighting in us and cherishing us in our own unique and unrepeatable beauty. And our hearts will hopefully be inflamed with an ardent longing to love the One who has so passionately loved us, drawing us to surrender ourselves to him and to enter into ever deeper intimacy with he who is “the fairest of the sons of men” (Ps 45:2), who is indeed the Beautiful One himself.

In the Song, as in reality, human love and divine love are not opposed to one another, but flow into one another and enrich each other. Thus, “the content of the Song of Songs is at the same time sexual and sacred” (D. Lys), and it is “only by putting these two aspects together that one can read the book in the right way” (TOB 108.97). Nonetheless, it is only in the light of God that human love can manifest and preserve its true nobility and dignity. And it is intimacy with God himself, a nuptial intimacy of total mutual self-giving and intimate belonging in a gratuitous embrace, that alone fulfills all that the longing human heart desires in its thirst for intimacy. In the light of this intimacy between God and humanity, an intimacy that sweeps us up into the very innermost life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we come to the throbbing heartbeat of all reality. We come to the mystery that runs as a thread throughout the whole Bible as its central truth, the truth that gives meaning to all else. It is the revelation of the inner life of the Trinity as a life of sheer love and intimacy, as an embrace of mutual belonging in the gratuity of sheer happiness, and a revelation of God’s desire to incorporate us into this same intimacy. From the heart of the Trinity-from the innermost love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-therefore, this love extends into the relationship between Christ and the Church, and then distills further into the love between human persons.

Author Biography

Born in 1990 in Dumas, Texas, and after a long journey of discernment-including priesthood and various forms of monastic and eremitic life-Joshua Elzner has been living in the Texas panhandle a simple contemplative lay life since 2016, one marked by solitude, silence, and ordinariness in the presence of the Lord, though the roots of this calling and way of life go back much earlier. This contemplation is also the wellspring of his writing and creative activity, which he hopes shall be of benefit to his brothers and sisters and shall also help in the enrichment and renewal of the Church according to the central mystery of the love and communion of the Trinity that is her life, born of the opened Heart of the Paschal Christ who is our way into the very heart of God, and whose love is ever poured out in the heart of his Bride and indeed into every human heart, uniquely precious and beloved.