Page:The Catholic prayer book.djvu/202

awe and trembling to the table of thy sweetest banquet. For my heart and my body are stained with many sins, my mind and my tongue have not been kept with fitting diligence and circumspection. Wherefore, O compassionate Godhead, O dread and awful Majesty, I, thy wretched creature, who am fallen into a great strait, betake myself to thee, the Fountain of mercy; to thee I hasten that I may be healed; beneath thy protection I take my refuge; I long to have thee for my Saviour, before whom as my judge 1 can in nowise stand. To thee, O Lord, I now show my wounds; before thee I lay bare all this my shame. I know my sins, so many and so great, by reason of which I am afraid. I hope in thy mercies, which are past numbering. Look on me with the eyes of thy mercy, O Lord Jesus Christ, everlasting king, God and man, who wert crucified for man. Graciously hear me who hope in thee; have mercy on me who am full of miseries and of sins, O thou full and overflowing Fountain of pity and of mercy. Hail, thou saving Victim, offered for me and all mankind upon the tree of the Cross. Hail, thou noble and precious Blood, which dost ever flow forth from the wounds of my crucified Lord Jesus Christ, to wash away the sins of the whole world. Remember thy creature, O Lord, whom thou hast redeemed with thine own Blood. I grieve that I have sinned; I do earnestly desire to amend what I have done amiss. Wherefore, O merciful Father, take away from me all my iniquities and my sins, that, being cleansed in soul and body, I may worthily receive the holy Food of the holy; and grant that the sacred taste of thy Body and Blood which I, unworthy, am about to receive, may be to me the remission of my sins, the perfect expiation and