Ah, Lord, let me love Thee,
Let me love Thee,
love Thee,
love Thee,
more, more, more;
let my soul and my heart
ever yearn for Thee
until the day
of consummation:
Let the only, the only desire of my heart
be to love Thee
and to bring others to love Thee.
Thou alone
art my happiness, my life, my joy, my love, my pleasure, my delight;
In Thee may my soul find rest;
In Thy Will, and in that alone
can happiness be found.
One day in Thy courts
is better than a thousand...
Thou, my only Love, art Love itself,
Love itself unloved!
Love is not loved! Love is not loved!
Ah! weep! weep bitter tears, roar, sob, sigh, groan:
Love is not loved!
Wherefore art Thou unloved, my dearest Love?
It is not that Thy creatures know not love,
Although they know not Thee.
Let Love be loved!
Lord, let my heart
Blaze, burn, with rushing sparks my heart ignite -
Oh! Lord! That Thou be loved is my desire -
My sole desire; I set my life at naught...
Oh! Love of God,
Resisted, driven back, and set aside:
Ah! Love unknown, untasted... That they knew
How happy they would be... Oh, how I wish
Thy love for us was known. But how much more
I wish all men requited it! O, folly!
Not to return this gift of love - what madness!
A treacherous ingratitude. Ungrateful
Thus to reject Thy boundless charity.
Let all men love Thee, Lord; let all men love Thee!
These hearts of stone make hearts of fire of love -
Enkindle in our hearts such ardent flames
That we may love Thee as the Saints have done.
Open the ears of those who proudly stop them:
Open the eyes of those who proudly shut them:
Open the minds of those who proudly follow
Their own capricious intellects. Lord, help us:
Help us to bear the crosses that Thou givest,
These tokens of Thy love - ah, healing Cross!
O Cross of Christ, come, come, with all thy torment,
With all thy terrors and with all thy pain,
Hail, Cross, my only hope! - Lord, let me love Thee!
Lord, let us love Thee; break the hearts of sinners
In mercy infinite: ah, Lord, inflame
Our rotten hearts with burning zeal so fervent
Our joy shall know no bounds. Oh, Lord, have mercy,
And melt the ice of pride that sinners bear
Freezing their hearts; O melt away their coldness
With fiery flames enkindled by Thy Spirit.
Oh, Lord, why is it sinners rage
So furiously against Thee?
It breaks my heart to see Thee treated thus!
Behold our King, behold Him on the Cross,
The Cross of shame, the ignominious death
That conquered is by love, eternal Love.
Ah!
It is for my sins, Jesus, that Thou diest.
Thou diest for us all, us wretched sinners,
Who still blaspheme Thee; still we sin against Thee
And tear Thee limb from limb - insensate wretches!
God, grant us grace, and we shall conquer evil -
Or rather Thou shalt conquer evil in us.
Strength comes from Thee alone (to those who ask it) .
Give us the sense to ask the strength we have not,
Or Satan certainly will overcome us:
Grant us the grace to conquer his temptation.
My dearest Jesus, why do men blaspheme Thee?
Why do they hate Thee so? They may deny it,
Just as they Thee deny. But they will answer
To Thee, Lord, at the last. Let all men love Thee!
Lord, let them know that hatred of a sin
IS love of sinners. Let us love the good,
But sin and error passionately hate:
And let them know that nobody can love
Who does not hate the enemies of his love:
(13th January,2011.)
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem