My God, My All

My God, my all  

Why do you mean so much to me? Why do I mean so much to you that you command me to love you? And if I fail to love you, you threaten me with great sorrow, as if not to love you were not sorrow enough. 

Have pity on me and help me. O Lord my God, speak so that I may hear your words. Whisper in my heart, ' I am here to save you'.  My heart has ears ready to listen to you, Lord, open them wide and I shall hear your voice and make haste to clasp you to myself. 

My soul is like a house, small for you to enter, but I beg you to enlarge it. It is in ruins; I ask you to rebuild it.

In it is much that will displease you: this I know and I do not conceal it from you. But who is to empty it of these things? To you only I can say, 'I trust, and trusting I find words to utter'. Lord, you know that this is so, for I have acknowledged my sin.

I do not dispute your judgement for you are truth itself, and I have no wish to delude myself lest I betray my own malice.  'For if you, Lord, will mark iniquities who may abide it?' 

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St Augustine --- The Heart at Rest