Sonnet For Ambrose

When God saved Noah from the flooded earth,

The mystery of our entrance rite was told:

Water and blood do wash away all dirt

That sin and evil spread from days of old.

The ark, its wood did hold the Lord of all

A king who suffered for humanity

The raven did not answer Noah’s call

For it was sin in all its revelry

But as the dove descends from up above

And if inside and outside you are just

The Spirit will preserve your soul in love,

Tranquility of mind, and peace or bust

So if the mystery you still don’t see

Consult Ambrose’s On the Mysteries

Ambrose of Milan On the Mysteries:

"10. Take another testimony. All flesh was corrupt by its iniquities. “My Spirit,” says God, “shall not remain among men, because they are flesh.” Whereby God shows that the grace of the Spirit is turned away by carnal impurity and the pollution of grave sin. Upon which, God, willing to restore what was lacking, sent the flood and bade just Noah go up into the ark. And he, after having, as the flood was passing off, sent forth first a raven which did not return, sent forth a dove which is said to have returned with an olive twig. You see the water, you see the wood [of the ark], you see the dove, and do you hesitate as to the mystery?

11. The water, then, is that in which the flesh is dipped, that all carnal sin may be washed away. All wickedness is there buried. The wood is that on which the Lord Jesus was fastened when He suffered for us. The dove is that in the form of which the Holy Spirit descended, as you have read in the New Testament, Who inspires in you peace of soul and tranquillity of mind. The raven is the figure of sin, which goes forth and does not return, if, in you, too, inwardly and outwardly righteousness be preserved."