Directing Spirit, be thou near,
Thou art my God, my all!
Pray for us, Mary, Mother, sweet,
Mother most kind, thy Son entreat,
Ever refresh our weary feet.
That seek his homeward call!
Devout Affections of the Soul,
IN RHYME,
Addressed to the several Members of Christ crucified.
Decade 1.
On Sunday.
TO THE SACRED FEET.
Jesu, by saintly Choirs adored.
Light of the world, the Angels Lord,
Way, Life, and Truth, all hail!
Thy sons, O Man of many woes.
Draw peace and healing from thy throes,
And Death of high avail.
Jesu, great King of saving wealth,
Death’s Conqu’ror, Lord of life and health,
Make me to share thy bitter Tree,
That I, who taste of death with thee,
May taste thy joys undying;
Yet while I ask, my sin alarms,
Till I behold thine outstretch’d arms
And Body bleeding — then I fall
In prostrate love, and vow, thee all,
On hope of love relying!
The nails thy tender Feet that pierce,
The wounds, the gashes, large and fierce,
I feel them all, and joy to feel,
Yet, scared by all thy wounds reveal,
The stricken heart recoils.
Oh, how shall rescued sinners prove
Meet gratitude for boundless love?
What love like thine, which paid our cost,
And won the heav’n our sins had lost,
By its atoning toils?
O sweetest Jesu, God of might,
Thou art my portion and delight.
What can I need, possessing thee,
And what are countless worlds to me
Without my God, my all?
Give me, O Lord, to enter in,
And hide this heart, defiled with sin,
In thy red Wounds and punctures deep;
Lest, when o’er earth thy vengeance sweep,
On me the light’ning fall!
