Tag: 4th Century

I know, O Lord,
and with all humility acknowledge myself
altogether unworthy of your love.
But I am sure you are altogether worthy of mine.
I am not good enough to serve you,
but you have a right to the best service I can pay.
Impart to me some of that excellence,
that will supply my own lack of worth.
Help me to cease from sin against your will,
that I may render you service according to my duty.
Enable me so to guard and govern myself,
to begin and finish my course,
that when the race of life is run,
I may sleep in peace and rest in you.
Be with me to the end,
that my sleep may be rest indeed,
my rest perfect security,
and that security, a blessed eternity. Amen.

Source: Augustine of Hippo

Source of this version: Freely modified from Prayers of the Early Church, edited by J. Manning Potts, 1953

O good and omnipotent God,
you care for every one of us,
as if you cared for each alone,
and you care for all as if all were one!
Blessed is the one who loves you,
and who loves his friend in you,
and who loves his enemy for you.
For with you, we lose none dear to us,
to whom all are dear.
You, our God,
who made heaven and earth and fill them,
and by filling them you create them.
Your law is truth, and truth is yourself.
I see the things of this earth pass away,
and I see other things take their place,
but you remain forever.
Therefore, my God and Father,
to you I entrust all I have received from you,
for then, I can lose nothing.
You, O Lord,
have made me for yourself,
and my heart can find no rest
until it rests in you.
Amen.

Source: Augustine of Hippo, Fourth Century

Source of this version: Freely modified from Prayers of the Early Church, edited by J. Manning Potts, 1953