Vigils Reading

EVERYTHING WILL BEGIN AGAIN

By Marie Noël

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The way of all humanity traces a circle….

The path that we took when we came naked into the world and which we

climbed from year to year until we came to the middle of our life — on that same

path we will go down again to return, naked, to the place of departure.

Little by little we grew, and raised our stature above the earth; little by

little we will shrink and become bent down towards the earth.

Little by little we opened our senses, hearing, sight and all the others, like

windows in the morning; little by little, one after the other, we will close them

again like windows in the evening.

Little by little, every day, we stored up all kinds of knowledge in our

memory; they will daily escape from our memory a little later on.

A little later, day by day, our arms became strong, our hands skilled, our

tongues able, and rich in words; our arms will become weak, our hands clumsy,

our tongues poor and stammering, day by day, a little later on.

One day, we learned to speak; one day, we will not be able to speak. One

day we came down from our mother’s arms and walked by ourself; one day we

will stop walking by ourself and will lean on [another’s] arm.

One day we had not yet left our cradle and a woman took us up from time

to time to nurse us and change our clothes; one day we will not leave our bed

again and a [another] will come from time to time to wash us and give us drinks.

One day, for the first time, we opened our eyes and saw; one day, for the

last time, we will shut our eyes and see no more.

One day, for the first time, we inhaled the air of this world and were born;

one day, for the last time, we will exhale the air of this world and die.

One day, before all these days, we spent long months in the darkness of

our mother to form our bones and flesh and compose our bodies; one day, after

all these days, we will spend long months in the darkness of the earth to

decompose our bodies and unmake our flesh and bones.

One day, before all these days, we came out of our father as a little seed of

life; one day, after all these days, we will re-enter the Father of fathers to be

begotten anew in eternal life.

And everything, in a new Being, will begin again.