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a prayer

"O God, you have redeemed me to be a child of God, and called me from vanity to inherit all things.  I praise you, that having loved and given yourself for me, you then command: 'As I have loved you, so also should you love one another.'  In this you have not commanded only me to love others, but also all others to so love me, as to lay down their lives for my peace and welfare.  Since love is the end for which heaven and earth was made, enable me to see and discern the sweetness of so great a treasure.  And since you have raised me to the throne of God in Jesus Christ, and commanded your saints by this precept to give me their fellowship, deep affection, and high esteem, then grant me the grace that I may be acceptable to the saints. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, and make my soul and life beautiful.  Make me to be wise, good, and loving in every way, that I may be worthy of their esteem and acceptance."  

(Prayer based on Thomas Traherne, Centuries I:96)

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