Compassionate Lord,
Thy mercies have brought me to the dawn
of another day,
Vain will be its gift unless I grow in grace, increase in knowledge,
ripen for spiritual harvest.
Let me this day know thee as thou art,
love thee supremely,
serve thee wholly,
admire thee fully.
Through grace let my will respond to thee,
Knowing that power to obey is not in me, but
that thy free love alone enables me to serve thee.
Here then is my empty heart,
overflow it with thy choicest gifts:
Here is my blind understanding,
chase away its mists of ignorance.
O ever watchful Shepherd,
lead, guide, tend me this day.
Without thy restraining rod I err and stray;
Hedge up my path lest I wander into
unwholesome pleasure,
and drink its poisonous streams:
Direct my feet that I be not entangled
in Satan’s secret snares,
nor fall into his hidden traps.
Defend me from assailing foes,
from evil circumstances,
from myself.
My adversaries are part and parcel of my nature:
They cling to me as my very skin;
I cannot escape their contact.
In my rising up and sitting down they
barnacle me;
They entice with constant baits;
My enemy is within the citadel;
Come with almighty power and cast him out,
pierce him to death,
and abolish in my every particle
of carnal life this day.

…Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.