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Holy Cross Abbey

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A Word from our Cistercian Fathers

March 1, 2021 by Fr Joseph

Truly, Lord, you are become our refuge; I have fled to you, teach me your will and make me do it.  You have had compassion on the people that followed you into the wilderness.  You have had pity and have provided food, lest they faint by the way.  I have begun to follow you, my leader, into the wilderness; I have vowed and I am determined to keep the judgments of your righteousness.  By your grace I will not forsake you; I will not withdraw myself from you until either I come to the goal whither you have begun to bring me, or I fall in my tracks as you yourself fell, if it is possible to fall following you.  For I know that, even if the body is weak and even if the spirit sometimes wearies, I shall not fail if I do not forsake you, but shall make progress by means of my infirmities, provided you do not forsake me by depriving me of patience.  Have mercy on me, Lord; look on my low estate and poverty.  Help me and carry me, weak and feeble as I am in both mind and body.  Inspire those who love you, your servants and your children, to help me and to carry me, and out of my wretchedness to gain the rewards of their patience and their pity.  I am yours:  O save me.  Into your hands I commend my spirit.  Teach it and rule it, encourage, comfort and enlighten it.  Give me wisdom that sits upon your throne, that she may be with me and may labor with me, that I may know at all times what is acceptable in your sight.  But do not reject me from the number of your children, for I am your servant, and your servants’ servant too. 

The end of the law is charity, and that is the end of my prayer.  O you who have willed to be called charity, give me charity, that I may love you more than I love myself, nor caring at all what I do with myself, so long as I am doing what is pleasing in your sight.  Grant me, O Father – though I dare not always call myself your child – grant me at least to be your faithful little servant and the sheep of your pasture.  Speak to your servant’s heart sometimes, O Lord, so that your consolations may give joy to my soul.  And teach me to speak to you often in prayer.  Take to yourself all my poverty and need, O Lord, my God and Father.  Have pity on my weakness, you who are my strength.  And may it be to your great glory that my feebleness continues to serve you.  Amen.

William of St Thierry, On Contemplating God, Prayer, Meditations: Meditation Thirteen, v. 7, 9 (CF 3, p.. 189f)  

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