It is to St Ephraem that we owe some of the most beautiful of hymns, written originally in Syriac. Among them is ‘The Pearl’, and here is part of it:

‘On a certain day a pearl did I take up, my brethren; I saw in it mysteries pertaining to the Kingdom; Semblances and types of the Majesty; It became a fountain, and I drank out of it mysteries of the Son.

I put it, my brethren, upon the palm of my hand, That I might examine it: I went to look at it on one side, and it proved faces on all sides. I found out that the Son was incomprehensible, since He is wholly Light.

In its brightness I beheld the Bright One Who cannot be clouded, and in its pureness a great mystery, even the Body of Our Lord which is well-refined: In its undividedness I saw the Truth Which is undivided.

It was so that I saw there its pure conception, the Church, and the Son within her. The cloud was the likeness of her that bare Him, and her type the heaven, since there shone forth from her His gracious Shining’.

May we be drawn into the contemplation of Him who is Light, and may God bless you and keep you in His Love.