How can I love Thee better, dearest Lord Jesus? Please hear and answer the prayer I make, the prayer You move my heart to make. Give me the desire of my heart, which is to love You and to delight You.
As I read Your Holy Word, dear Lord, day by day, break my stony heart with it. Melt me, mold me, after Thy will, while I am still before Thy Word. May Your consolations delight my soul, as indeed they do, O Lord, like nothing else I ever read. Ravish my needy soul with Your sweet love! Only the sight of Your love can make my love brun. Thank You for the truth of Your Word: love lives only with truth.
My Lord, You made the longing to pray. So fulfill the longing. Thank You for this prayer and for every prayer. Make my secret prayers the best. Break the alabaster vase over Thyself alone.
Now, Lord, how can I say I love You if I don’t obey Your commandments? So teache me their deep meaning and strengthen me to obey. “Give what You command, O Lord, and then command whatever You will.” (St. Augustine)
Your merest wish shall be my command, dear Savior. Let others obey according to the light from Your Word which they have thus far, but please favor me with willingness to do Your will in all its depth, whatever it costs. Enable me to live up to such a prayer! I tremble to think of what You may ask of me, but the desire of my heart is to love You through complete obedience. I praise You that Your service is perfect freedom. I bless You that Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light (though it be the Cross!) because Your love makes it easy and light. More love, O Jesus, to Thee, in costly obedience.
And, Lord, how can I say I obey You unless I love those actual people You put in my life and in my path? I do believe they are the people of Your choice…help Thou my unbelief! Teach me the secret of loving others, as only You can. May I have the precious closeness and the proper distance with each and every one. Set love “in order” in me, dear Lord (St. Bernard of Clairvaux). Send me the hostile, the difficult, the lost! And help me be ready, O Lord: You know what I can handle. But every day enlarge my heart! More love to Thee, O Lord, in loving others.
Amen.