Footnotes

1. Song of Songs 5:7 Distraught at having missed the rendezvous, the bride runs to seek out the bridegroom. What an adventure this journey into the night becomes! She runs into the guardians of the walls who maltreat her; then a group of young women joke at her: What do you see in your beloved? Her reply comes from the heart, for she bears the portrait of her beloved within her—what a treasure!
   In Israel, after so many losses, there is reborn a new ardor to seek God when trials and mockeries mount up, at the return from the Exile or in the pagan dispersion. There is no clearer witness than a sincere conversion. But is not God the first to awaken the human heart in which he is secretly present? In St. Augustine’s words, “You would not be seeking me if you had not already found me.” The more we understand God, the more ardently do we seek his countenance.
2. Song of Songs 5:7 Watchmen: see note on Song 3:3.