You who dwell in the gardens,
where my companions are listening,
let me hear your voice,
let me hear your voice.
Flee, my beloved,
like a gazelle,
like a young stag,
on the sweet scented mountains.
I am in his eyes
as one who has found peace,
my vineyard is here in front of me,
my vineyard is here in front of me,
Flee, my beloved,
like a gazelle,
like a young stag,
on the sweet scented mountains.
You who dwell in the gardens…
The Church through Baptism has been introduced into the gardens of the Kingdom "where the
companions are listening."
There, as she has been made mother and teacher of all nations because of the experience of
love she has received and because of the suffering, the joys, the failures, the recoveries and – we
could say – because of the history of salvation that the Song of Songs expresses, the Church is
invited by the Bridegroom to let her voice be heard in a final yearning.
The Church answers with an eschatological paschal cry: what she has come to know and
experienced of the Bridegroom makes her desire to flee with him in a final exodus "to the sweet
scented mountains," which is Heaven, forever free.

You have covered death with shame,
you have thrown hell into mourning,
you have struck iniquity,
you have deprived injustice of her children,
as Moses did to Pharaoh,
as Moses did to Pharaoh.
You have brought us from slavery to freedom,
from darkness to light, from death to life.
You are the passover of our salvation,
you are the lamb born of Mary.
Mary, she-lamb without blemish,
Mary, the innocent she-lamb.
You have been slain in Abel,
you have been bound in Isaac,
sold in Joseph,
abandoned on the waters in Moses,
persecuted in David,
mocked and despised in all the prophets.
You are the lamb who does not open his mouth,
you are the lamb born of Mary.
Mary, she-lamb without blemish…
You were taken from the flock,
led to sacrifice,
slaughtered in the evening,
buried in the night,
your blessed body did not experience corruption.
You rose from death,
and made mankind rise
from the depths of the tomb.
You are the lamb who does not open his mouth,
you are the lamb born of Mary.
Mary, she-lamb without blemish…