A Prayer For The Love Of God Poem by David Mitchell

Ah, Lord, let me love Thee,

Let me love Thee,

love Thee,

love Thee,

more, more, more;

let my soul and my heart

ever yearn for Thee

until the day

of consummation:



Let the only, the only desire of my heart

be to love Thee

and to bring others to love Thee.



Thou alone

art my happiness, my life, my joy, my love, my pleasure, my delight;

In Thee may my soul find rest;

In Thy Will, and in that alone

can happiness be found.



One day in Thy courts

is better than a thousand...



Thou, my only Love, art Love itself,

Love itself unloved!

Love is not loved! Love is not loved!

Ah! weep! weep bitter tears, roar, sob, sigh, groan:

Love is not loved!



Wherefore art Thou unloved, my dearest Love?

It is not that Thy creatures know not love,

Although they know not Thee.



Let Love be loved!

Lord, let my heart

Blaze, burn, with rushing sparks my heart ignite -

Oh! Lord! That Thou be loved is my desire -

My sole desire; I set my life at naught...



Oh! Love of God,

Resisted, driven back, and set aside:

Ah! Love unknown, untasted... That they knew

How happy they would be... Oh, how I wish

Thy love for us was known. But how much more

I wish all men requited it! O, folly!

Not to return this gift of love - what madness!

A treacherous ingratitude. Ungrateful

Thus to reject Thy boundless charity.

Let all men love Thee, Lord; let all men love Thee!

These hearts of stone make hearts of fire of love -

Enkindle in our hearts such ardent flames

That we may love Thee as the Saints have done.

Open the ears of those who proudly stop them:

Open the eyes of those who proudly shut them:

Open the minds of those who proudly follow

Their own capricious intellects. Lord, help us:

Help us to bear the crosses that Thou givest,

These tokens of Thy love - ah, healing Cross!

O Cross of Christ, come, come, with all thy torment,

With all thy terrors and with all thy pain,

Hail, Cross, my only hope! - Lord, let me love Thee!



Lord, let us love Thee; break the hearts of sinners

In mercy infinite: ah, Lord, inflame

Our rotten hearts with burning zeal so fervent

Our joy shall know no bounds. Oh, Lord, have mercy,

And melt the ice of pride that sinners bear

Freezing their hearts; O melt away their coldness

With fiery flames enkindled by Thy Spirit.



Oh, Lord, why is it sinners rage

So furiously against Thee?

It breaks my heart to see Thee treated thus!

Behold our King, behold Him on the Cross,

The Cross of shame, the ignominious death

That conquered is by love, eternal Love.



Ah!



It is for my sins, Jesus, that Thou diest.

Thou diest for us all, us wretched sinners,

Who still blaspheme Thee; still we sin against Thee

And tear Thee limb from limb - insensate wretches!

God, grant us grace, and we shall conquer evil -

Or rather Thou shalt conquer evil in us.

Strength comes from Thee alone (to those who ask it) .

Give us the sense to ask the strength we have not,

Or Satan certainly will overcome us:

Grant us the grace to conquer his temptation.



My dearest Jesus, why do men blaspheme Thee?

Why do they hate Thee so? They may deny it,

Just as they Thee deny. But they will answer

To Thee, Lord, at the last. Let all men love Thee!

Lord, let them know that hatred of a sin

IS love of sinners. Let us love the good,

But sin and error passionately hate:

And let them know that nobody can love

Who does not hate the enemies of his love:



(13th January,2011.)