The Ascension

He who ascends
never ceases to go from beginning to beginning,
through a series of beginnings that never ends.
The one who ascends never ceases to desire
what he already knows.
But continually ascending,
from one desire for something newer and greater
to still another that is higher,
the soul continues its course towards the infinite,
by means of ever more upward flights.
Thus, to the one who is ascending
there comes ever more insistently a call
which leads him to rise ever more on high,
"Come, my love, my dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock."

Gregory of Nissa, Homily 8 on the Song of Songs