Sunday, May 17, 2020

The Venerable Bede: The Greater Litanies



Our Lord and Savior, desiring that we arrive at the joys of the heavenly kingdom, taught us to ask these joys of him, and promised that he would give them to us, if we asked for them. 'Ask, ' he said, 'and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.’ We must ponder these words of our Lord, dearly beloved brothers, earnestly and with our whole heart, because he bears witness that the kingdom of heaven is not to be given to, found by, and opened to those who are idle and unoccupied, but to those who ask for it, seek after it and knock [at its gates]. The gate of the Kingdom must be asked for by praying; it must be sought by living properly; it must be knocked at by persevering. It is not sufficient to ask in words only, if we do not also seek diligently how we ought to be living, so that we may be worthy to obtain that which we plead, as he bears witness, when he says: 'Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of but he who does the will of my Father who is in is in heaven, will  enter the kingdom of heaven'. And it is of no avail to have begun good [deeds] if such a one does not strive to bring the matters which one has begun well to a firm conclusion. Rather, ‘It were better not to recognize the way of righteousness, than after acknowledging it to turn back.’

Hence, my brothers, we must ask painstakingly and pray without respite.  ‘Let us fall down before God, let us weep before the Lord who made us.’ And that we may become worthy to be hearkened to, let us eagerly see how he wishes us to live, and what he who made us has us has ordered us to do. Let us seek the Lord and be strengthened; let us seek his face continually. And that we may deserve to find him and see him, ‘let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit,’ for only those with a chaste body are capable of being raised up to heaven on the day of the [final] judgement and  only those with a pure heart are capable glory of the divine Majesty.

Let us pierce the ears of our benevolent Maker with our unwearying desire for eternal happiness, and let us not falter in what we have begun before he opens [the gates] and we become worthy to be snatched from the prison of this death and to enter the gate of the heavenly fatherland.

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