Alas My Lord, by Christina Rossetti

Lent, Day 11

Alas my Lord,
How should I wrestle all the livelong night
With Thee my God, my Strength and my Delight?

How can it need
So agonized an effort and a strain
To make Thy Face of Mercy shine again?

How can it need
Such wringing out of breathless prayer to move
Thee to Thy wonted Love, when Thou art Love?

Yet... and then 6 verses about Bible folk who persevered in prayer, ending with Jesus:

Yea, Thou my God
Hast prayed all night, and in the garden prayed
Even while, like melting wax, Thy strength was made.

Alas for him
Who faints, despite Thy Pattern, King of Saints:
Alas, alas, for me, the one that faints.

Lord, give us strength
To hold Thee fast, until we hear Thy Voice
Which Thine own know, who hearing It rejoice.

Lord, give us strength
To hold Thee fast until we see Thy Face,
Full Fountain of all Rapture and all Grace.

But when our strength
Shall be made weakness, and our bodies clay,
Hold Thou us fast, and give us sleep till day.

Wanted to get a blip of the moon, which was superb lastnight, but here in Leeds, all cloudy. So have gone with this one of Leeds C.U. at prayer after I'd spoken to them. What an attractive and interesting bunch of young people!

The last verse makes me think again of my Mum...