Nurturing the Divine Life Within

ALMIGHTY, in Whom we live and move and have our being, it is possible to live, and yet not truly live; to have natural being, and not spiritual being. Have mercy upon us, and grant unto us here, in this strange life of ours, with all its littlenesses and faults, that there may be fashioned within us the Divine life.

We have watched how in winter-time Thou dost nurse the bud of the coming spring, and in like manner we pray Thee that the bud of the Life Eternal may be nursed in the winter of our life, and come forth at last in beauty and fulness. Quicken Thou us according to Thy word, so that nothing may have power to deaden within us the bud of the life Divine. Grant that no fulness of daily cares, no round of little things, may blind us to the sense of life’s greatness, solemnity, and mystery.

If Thou beholding us dost find that we are not as we once were, quick towards truth,—pity us, and renew us day by day, for day by day do we waste away. As Thou night by night renewest the faded forces of nature, so. quicken our souls, and make us more like little children, quick to do Thy will.

When our sins do bow us down, and our many faults weigh upon us, when the songs of Thy Church are too sweet for our sad souls, then have mercy, and renew our fainting spirits. Overcome the evil within us, and bring us, through Thy wondrous love, safe through death to Life Everlasting.—AMEN.