Prayer CVII
Our Father, which art in Heaven, may we receive that Christ-baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire which shall burn up all our coldness, and dissolve our impurities, and make us as the fine gold tried in the fire. We thank Thee for the spirit of burning. We beseech Thee to cleanse us by that swift energy, and to make us more and more what Thou wouldst have us to be, like Thyself in holiness and in purity.
We draw near to Thee, O Lord, with many needs in our experience, some of us with weights upon our hearts, all of us with tasks upon our shoulders; and we beseech Thee for strength according to our day. May we have grace given to us to face the duties that are enjoined upon us. May we look to Thee for all our power, for little things and great. In the trivialities of life, and in its crises, may we realise Thy presence; may we run and not be weary, may we walk and not faint.
Help us, wherever Thy providence leads us, to carry deep in our hearts, for peace and for power, the assurance of the presence of Thy Spirit; and out of the secret place of the Most High may we come into the world influences for good and for God, and be ourselves kept free from much transgression.
We pray Thee to comfort and succour any among us who have come into Thy house seeking for peace and consolation, with aching hearts that need Thy gentlest touch, with sorrows that Thou only canst console. We bless Thee that amidst all the varieties of our troubles there is the one Source open for us all; and may none of us neglect the great Comforter, nor shut our hearts against Thy loving whispers of peace and stillness. Do Thou help us to use aright our sorrows and our joys, that by all the changes of their vicissitudes we may be swept nearer to Thee, that the cross-currents of our lives may all drift towards God; and that whatever Thou dost send us we may be able to undertake in Thy power, and be more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
Accept our thanks for all Thy mercies to us; forgive, we beseech Thee, our unworthy requital of Thee for them, and our often unworthy use of them. Oh to carry the thought of Thyself into every corner of our activities, and every experience and emotion of our lives!
We beseech Thee to guide us by Thy counsel, and speak some words through us and to us that may be true and profitable to us all. Accept our praise that Thou dost gather us together thus. May this gift of Thy day of rest be to us a day of gladness, of resurrection, of recreation of our spirits, of the consolidation of our faith, of the increase of our love, of the more resolved consecration of ourselves to whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, and to Thee Who art the fountain of them all.
Hear us in these our supplications, and in Thy great mercy answer and bless us, through Jesus Christ our Saviour-Lord.