PLEA FOR A FRESH START

Oh, God,

Let me eat no more of the sinful fruit
of the Fatal Apple which Adam tasted.

Tear down the charnel house of my sins!
Despoil the fleshy indiscretions therein,
and sweep out out the rotting fruits of evil.

Hold me back from temptation where poisonous serpents coil to attack again.

I have abused Your Love.

Hide me now from the lewd seductions
of the Prince of Corruption and Destruction.

Incinerate my evil past in Your Easter Fire!

Obliterate my dark sins in the vast sunlight of Your sweet salvation.

Cleanse me in the bracing Jordan waters.
Clothe me in the linens of Your radiant mercy.

Hold me fast in Your strong right arm
and let past missteps vanish in spring showers of forgiving forgetfulness.

Rain down blessings on me in torrents
of cool grace. Bow me down on fresh grasses in dews of forgiveness, and lead me only then through the ascending porticos
of Your shining palaces of grace.

Please let my meager goodness build
within my soul a pavilion of innocence,
frosted with grace, gilded in humility and ornamented with love.

Let me set round it high cold barricades against against the heat of temptation.

Then, Oh God of Salvation, make Your home within my soul. Blind me to evil!
Make me alien to sin. Let me see no sun
but You, the Shining Light of All Eternity.

Amen