O LOVER TO THE UTTERMOST
May I read the meltings of your heart to me...
in the manger of your birth,
in the garden of your agony,
in the cross of your suffering.

Deepen in me a sense of my holy
relationship to you as my spiritual
Bridegroom and my best Friend.

I think of...
your glory and my vileness,
your majesty and my smallness,
your beauty and my deformity,
your purity and my filth,
your righteousness and my iniquity.

You have loved me eternally and unchangeably.
May I love you as I am loved by you.

You have given yourself for me,
may I give myself for you.

You have died for me, may I live for you.

May I never dally with the world's allurements but...
walk by your side,
listen to your voice,
be clothed with your graces,
and be adorned with your righteousness.

from "The Valley of Vision"