Prayers Ancient and Modern 03/21

“My soul remained in a kind of heavenly elysium. So far as I am capable of making a comparison, I think that what I felt each minute, during the continuance of the whole time, was worth more than all the outward comfort and pleasure, which I had enjoyed in my whole life put together. It was a pure delight, which fed and satisfied the soul. It was peasure, without the least sting, or any interruption. It was a sweetness, which my soul was lost in. It seemed to be all that my feeble frame could sustain, of that fulness of joy, which is felt by those, who behold the face of Christ, and share his love in the heavenly world.” – Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards

Published March 21, 2016 |

O God of Light, Father of Life, Giver of Wisdom, Benefactor of our souls, who givest to the faint-hearted who put their trust in Thee those things into which the angels desire to look; O Sovereign Lord, who hast brought us up from the depths of darkness to light, who hast given us life from death, who hast graciously bestowed upon us freedom from slavery, and who hast scattered the darkness of sin within us; do Thou now also enlighten the eyes of our understanding, and sanctify us wholly in soul, body, and spirit—Amen.

Liturgy of St. Mark (175-254).

O Lord, give us all, we beseech Thee, grace and strength to overcome every sin; sins of besetment, deliberation, surprise, negligence, omission; sins against Thee, our self, our neighbor; sins great, small, remembered, forgotten—Amen.

Christina G. Rossetti