New Year Prayers 2 - Prayer of Thomas Ken

Ken was a hymnwriter, poet, and Bishop of Bath and Wells in the late 1600's/early 1700s. Indulge me in the font, I think it goes with the olde English

Thou O heavenly Guide of our Devotion and our Love,

by teaching us to pray, hast shewed us

that Prayer is our treasury where all Blessings are kept,

our Armoury where all our strength and weapons are stored,

the only great preservative,

and the very vital heat of Divine Love.

Give me grace to call on thee at all times by diligent Prayer.

Ah Lord, I know my Devotion has daily

many unavoidable and necessary interruptions,

and I cannot always be actually praying,

all I can do is to beg of thy Love,

to keep my heart always in an habitual disposition to Devotion,

and in mindfulness of thy divine presence,

O my God, as thy infinite Love

is ever-streaming in Blessings on me;

O let my Soul be ever breathing Love to thee.

comment: I love this, both for the fabulous imagery, and the down to earth realism 'unavoidable and necessary interruptions'. That picture of a flow of love to and from the Father, if I can just be there for 2 seconds a week, would be quite something. And those 4 descriptions of prayer in the first section say more than a lot of entire books. And blogs.