Prayer 76 Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart A God whose mercies are diverse and abundant, mighty and awesome God who loves mankind, blessed living God beyond description whose mere word can make anything possible and for whose mind nothing is unthinkable.1 You alone can repay the severity of thorns with sweetness of fruit. You who are the author of that new and amazing law of life: to do good to those who hate and pray for those who persecute and to seek salvation for those who wound and ask forgiveness for those who murder. These are the miraculous fruits you bestow,2 with sweetness beyond compare made delectable by your divine will and savory by your praiseworthy lips, Lord Christ, blessed on high breath of our nostrils,3 and the strength of our dignity.4 Yet still, human beings, earth-born prone to err render evil to the hand offering good,5 but you, light and giver of light, do not heed the blasphemy, take no pleasure in evil, do not want their destruction and do not wish these sinners’ death.6 Neither are you vexed or agitated, nor do you succumb to anger. Nor do you act rashly. Nor do you wane in love. Nor do you waver in compassion. Nor do you change in goodness. Neither do you turn your back or turn your face away.7 Rather you are light on all paths with the sole aim of salvation. B If you wish to pardon, you are able. If to heal, you have the power. To give life, you have the means. To bestow, you are generous. To make whole, you are able. To grant, you are most bountiful. To justify, you are most resourceful. To comfort, you are all powerful. To renew, you are all capable. To perform a miracle, you are king of all. To establish anew, you are the creator. To re-create, you are God. To care for us, you are Lord of all. To rid us of sin, you are a guardian. To aid us, though unworthy, you are blessed. To rescue from the hunter, you are our savior. To pour yours upon us, you are rich. To reach us before we ask, you lack nothing. To widen the narrow places, you are a comfort. To call me who am last, you are a protector. To steady me who wavers, you are a rock. To give me a drink when parched, you are a fountain. To reveal to me what is covered, you are light. To teach me what is useful, you are kind. To overlook my faults, you are long-suffering. To refrain from judging my minor transgressions, you are exalted. To lend a hand to a servant like me, you are good master. To shelter with your right hand, you are a provider. To offer a remedy to me who am infirm, you are a restorer. To fill me when ignorant, you are a teacher.8 To accept me when I petition, you are a refuge. C Indeed, all these are yours, Lord of mercy, not just in words, but also in reality, especially are you foremost among the martyrs in your patient suffering, you, who for my salvation came to the battlefield in force to soften the stiff-necked unruliness of my haughty body with the tempering instruction of tormenting tribulation and taking our nature, bore on your blameless body the penalty of grievous torment in order to teach by your example the mercy you have for us. Ever blessed. Amen.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 20:01:01 +0000
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