After Anointing

by Michael Field — a poem card from Justes Mots

A celebration of the sensory experience of receiving holy anointing oils in Christian liturgy. The poem shows how the five senses, normally limited to physical perception, become channels for encountering the divine through ritual blessing. It expresses ecstatic joy and the transcendence of bodily experience through sacramental grace.

JOY of the senses, joy of all
And each of them, as fall
The Holy Oils!... O senses, ye would dance,
Would circle what ye cannot see,
Nor hear, nor smell, nor taste, nor touch,
Yet ye receive of your felicity,
Till ye would reel and dance;
The joy apparent from your bliss being such…

Themes: gratitude · friendship · admiration · reflection