Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil. Joel 2:13
Collect of the Day
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan; Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 45
Lessons: Genesis 37:12-24, 1 Corinthians 1:20-31, Mark 1:14-28
What shall I do for you, O preserver of all: live, love, and admire; and learn to become such to you as you are to me. O glorious soul, whose comprehensive understanding at once contains all kingdoms and ages! O glorious mind, whose love extends to all creatures! O miraculous and eternal God-head, now suffering on the cross for me:
Why, Lord Jesus, do you love us, why are we your treasures? What wonder is this, that you should esteem us so as to die for us? Show me the reasons of your love that I may love all others too. O goodness ineffable! they are the treasures or your goodness who so infinitely love them that you gave yourself for them. Your goodness delighted to be communicated tot hem whom you had saved. O you who are most glorious in goodness, make me abundant in this goodness like yourself, that I may as deeply pity others' misery, and as ardently thirst for their happiness as you do. Let the same mind be in me that is in Christ Jesus, for those who are not led by the Spirit of Christ are none of his. Holy Jesus, I admire your love; I admire your love to me also. O that I could see it through all those wounds! O that I could feel it in all those stripes! O that I could hear it in all those groans! O that I could taste it beneath that gall and vinegar! O that I could smell the savor of thy sweet ointments, even in this Golgotha or Place of a Skull. I pray you to teach me first your love to me, and then to all mankind! But in your love to mankind I am beloved.
These wounds are in themselves openings too small to let in my sight to the vast comprehension of your eternal love. These wounds engraved in your hands are only shady impressions; unless I see the glory of your soul, in which the fulness [sic] of the God-head dwells bodily. The bloody characters are too dim to let me read it, in its luster and perfection till I see your person and know your ways! O you that hang upon this cross before my eyes, whose face is bleeding and covered over with tears and filth and blows! Angels adore the glory of your Godhead in the highest heavens who in every thought, and in every work did glorious things for me from everlasting! What could I, O my Lord, desire more than such a world! Such heavens and such an earth, such beasts and fowls and fishes made for me! All these do homage to me, and I have dominion over them from the beginning! The heavens and the earth minister to me, as if no one were created but I alone. I willingly acknowledge it to be your gift, your bounty to me! How many thousand ways do others also minister to me! O what riches have you prepared out of nothing for me! All creatures labor for my sake, and I am made to enjoy all your creatures. O what praises shall I return to you, the wisdom of the Creator and the brightness of the glory of the eternal goodness, who made all for me before you redeemed me.
Thomas Traherne
Poems, Centuries, and Three Thanksgivings
O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
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