It’s back to Bob Dylan for this week’s Ignatian song. It’s “Every Grain of Sand,” one of Dylan’s many songs with powerful Biblical imagery. The beauty of this song is in the lyrics. They depict a man choked by “the flowers of indulgence,” trying to resist “temptation’s angry flame,” sensing God’s presence
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master’s hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.
It brings to mind the sense of rescue from doom one has in the first week of the Spiritual Exercises. The Biblical allusions include Psalm 139 (God’s designs “outnumber the sands”); the Parable of the Sower (newborn seed, weeds), and Matthew 10 (not one sparrow falls to the ground with His knowledge).
Dylan is a marvelous poet. Here’s a performance by Emmylou Harris..
