I’m grateful and thankful for all that you are,

‘Cause all that you are causes all that you do,

And all that you do is only good, right, and true—

So I’m really just grateful and thankful for you.

You are the fullness of kindness, mercy, and grace,

And with truth in your right hand, you do what is just,

For in accord with your being, you act as you must,

Being the only person who is truly righteous.

As unlike the sun am I unlike you in brilliance,

For I am a shadow in the light of your beauty,

So make me just like you in every possible way

That I may be one with you like the sun and the day.

Just as light shines from the sun and ignites the earth,

So breathe in me your life for a renewal of birth,

For the breath that I breathe is really just dirt—

And I’m needing new life to discover my worth.

The trappings of sin and all my wretched vices

Have weighed me down like a slave bound up in irons

With the weight of their mastery upon me like lions,

Lust being their chieftain, calling to me as Sirens.

I lay in the dust, the bed of my own making

Where sorrows weigh heavy upon my own soul,

Wrought by the choices I have made as a fool,

Fashioning myself into the devil’s very tool.

Death you have faced in your very own way,

Treading upon it with triumphant victory:

Calling me onward to follow after thee,

You lead me to find in you my own Calvary.

Teach me to take up my cross on the daily

That I may know the sacrifice of what is holy,

Of what is wholly holy and holy to thee:

To love my neighbor, the stranger, and mine enemy.

For in love there is power beyond the scope of evil,

Which only beholds the presence of your power

And in the power of your presence does it cower,

As it comprehends not such in that you are ours.

Love, it has been found, is truly in giving it away:

You have been giving of yourself since the Beginning:

From which time, you have loved even those sinning,

Becoming just like us to bring about a new beginning.