After Confession Poem by David Mitchell

Freed at last from the frightening grasp of the foe,
Once again peace returns, now is ended the woe
That descended upon me as black as the pit
Of the hellfire of sin I had willingly lit!
O my Jesus! I love Thee! No words can suffice
Thee to thank for Thy Mercy; Thy Blood was the price
Of my wickedness; hadst Thou not pardon’d my crime,
Then accurst I had been in each moment of time
Until death or repentance had broken the thread
And I were to this wicked life, or to sin, dead;
Should this sinner have died in his sins (trembling thought) ,
Then a curse everlasting on him had been brought—
Yea, the curse of the Christ on my head would have lit,
And should certainly never be lifted from it.
But the curse of my sins in Thy mercy was turn’d
To a blessing, a beautiful blessing unearn’d
By me, save by repentance, Thy generous grace
That thou gavest to one that had spat in Thy Face.

May the blessing of grace that Thou gavest to me
Be a treasure I cling to, although there should be
Twenty thousand temptations to drag me to hell,
Still I ask Thee, then, Jesus, all evil to quell.

My Jesus, have mercy; preserve me from death
Everlasting; in Thee, Lord, I place all my faith;
And, O Mary, my Mother, take pity on me—
May the end of my journeying glorious be!

(Tuesday,20th January,2009.)