Prayers Ancient and Modern 12/28

“I entreat you, give no place to despondency. This is a dangerous temptation–a refined, not a gross temptation of the adversary. Melancholy contracts and withers the heart, and renders it unfit to receive the impressions of grace. It magnifies and gives a false colouring to objects, and thus renders your burdens too heavy to bear. God’s designs regarding you, and His methods of bringing about these designs, are infinitely wise.” – Madame Guyon

Published December 28, 2016 |

O God, who hast enkindled in the holy bosoms of all Thy saints so great an ardor of faith, that they despised all bodily pains, while hastening with all earnestness to Thee, the Author of life; hear our prayers, and grant that the hateful sweetness of sin may wax faint in us, and we may glow with the infused warmth of love for Thee; through Thy mercy, O our God, who art blessed, and dost live, and govern all things, world without end—Amen.

Mozarabic, before A.D. 700.

O Lord my god, perfect us in such patience that we may be in no haste to escape from toil or loneliness or suffering; yet ever in haste to serve Thee, to please Thee, and, when Thou wilt, to go home to Thy blessed Presence—Amen.

Christina G. Rossetti.